Surrender, Phineas
by MuchuFox
Summary: Dr. D, fed up with Norm, decides that he needs some new assistants. But when his assistants become more evil than he is, Phineas and Ferb must stop them from threatening the lives of everyone they love. Phinbella, Ferbnessa. Rated T for some violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all! MuchuFox here! I'm so excited to have my second fanfic up and can't wait to see what everyone thinks. I thought that this time, unlike my last story which focused entirely on Phineas and Isabella, I'd try to give a little more action with the whole gang for this story and make a longer storyline. So, in this story, Phineas, Ferb, and friends are about 14 and in the summer before their freshman year of high school, and Candace is in the summer before her senior year. Also, because of the way I set this story up, it may take a little while before I get to the real action part that relates to the summary and the very beginning. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoy, and of course, though it would be a great honor, I do not own Phineas and Ferb.**

* * *

><p><span>Surrender, Phineas<span>

Phineas scurried around the corner and skidded to a stop. Leaning back against the wall, he panted heavily. He carefully glanced back around the corner and thankfully saw no one.

_What's taking Ferb so long? _Phineas thought to himself, panicking. _I don't know if I can do this much longer…_

Suddenly Phineas felt a stab of pain that sent him reeling. Clutching at his side with one arm, he steadied himself against the wall with the other. He lifted his hand and saw that it was covered in blood.

_I'm still bleeding… _he thought as his eyes began to go slightly hazy. _Come on, Ferb, where are you?_

Phineas eased himself down the wall and tried to sit down. While he had been running away, he'd been too preoccupied to notice how much pain he was in, but now that he was stopped, he was beginning to feel all of it. He tried to think of first aid that he could apply to himself, but his mind was too cloudy recall any of the information he'd read.

_If only Isabella were here, _Phineas told himself, _she'd know what to do._

As he thought of her, Phineas felt another jab of pain, but not from his external wound. He shut his eyes tightly to try and stop the tears that were beginning to drip from his eyes.

_Isabella…why, Isabella…_

Phineas brushed his tears aside and tried to block her from his thoughts. He couldn't think about her now. He had other things to worry about, and…it was just too painful.

Suddenly a noise clamored down the hall. Phineas froze. It couldn't be them…could it? Phineas hurriedly stood up against the wall, doing his best to ignore the pain of his wound. Listening carefully, he began to sidle along the wall, moving away from the open hallway.

"I thought I saw him go this way," said a voice.

"Are you sure?" replied another.

"Yes, just follow me," the first voice answered, and footsteps began to round the corner.

Phineas quickly surveyed the hallway he was in. It was a dead end – there was nowhere for him to go, nothing for him to hide behind. Knowing there was nothing he could do, Phineas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, waiting for the two people to round the corner…

The first voice spoke: "Oh, there you are, Phineas…"

.

_Two days earlier…_

.

"Look out below!"

Buford, Isabella, and Baljeet dived out of the way just in time to escape the giant boomerang that was flying right at them. The boomerang swept past them and crashed into the ground, digging a deep trench into the Flynn-Fletcher backyard before it finally stopped.

"Phew, that was close," Phineas said, poking his head out of a hatch on one side of the boomerang. "We almost hit you guys there."

"Yes, a little too close for my taste," Baljeet added, slightly annoyed as he picked himself up off the ground. "I told you your calculations needed a little more work."

"Yeah, what's wrong with you, Dinner Bell?" Buford asked, using Baljeet forcefully as a handhold to get himself up. "Aren't you supposed to be the safe one? You know, with the head-helmets and all?"

"I know, I'm sorry," Phineas said, hopping out of the hatch. He walked over to Isabella and offered his hand to help her up. "I don't know what's been up me with me lately. I guess I've been a little…"

Phineas trailed off as Isabella stood up and smiled gratefully at him. After a moment, Phineas realized he was staring at her and turned away, embarrassed.

"…distracted…"

There was a sudden knocking from the boomerang that caught everyone's attention, and the four realized that Ferb hadn't gotten out of the contraption yet.

"Oh, sorry, Ferb," Phineas said, and hurried over to his brother's hatch and pulled on it until it wrenched open. Ferb pulled himself out of the boomerang, looking a little frazzled, but he shook his head and quickly regained his composure. He gestured to the hatch, and Phineas immediately understood.

"Yeah, it definitely needs more oil on the hinges," Phineas agreed. "I'll get right on that…"

Phineas turned and was about to head for the tools in the garage, but was interrupted by the sight of Candace bursting through the back door.

"Aha!" she cried. "I've got you this time! Mom's right in the living room, there's no way she'll miss this! Aha!"

Candace ran back inside to fetch her mother. The five teens simply looked at each other.

"You'd think she'd get tired of this," Phineas said.

Candace returned a moment later, thrusting her mom out in front of her and proudly gesturing to the backyard.

"See, Mom, they built a giant boomerang!"

"Candace, honestly," her mother sighed, "you're going to be a senior in the fall. Aren't you a little old to be still doing this?" Linda shook her head and walked back in the house.

"No, no I'm not!" Candace shouted back in the house defiantly. She then turned back around to see that the boomerang and ditch had mysteriously disappeared.

"What?" she exclaimed. "Not again!"

Candace slapped herself in the forehead, but only then noticed the others were still watching her.

"And not one word out of any of you!" she added before heading back inside the house grumpily.

"Well then, I guess that's that," Phineas said after a moment.

"So…what do we do now?" Baljeet asked.

"Who wants pie?" Linda called from inside.

"Me first!" Buford yelled, and he shoved the others aside as he ran for the kitchen. Isabella and Baljeet quickly followed him inside as Phineas chuckled to himself.

"I guess some things never change, huh, Ferb?" he said to his brother.

Ferb nodded in reply before heading in the door with his brother to get some of their mom's famous pie.

"By the way," Phineas asked as they walked, "where's Perry?"

* * *

><p><strong>Isn't that the question we're all asking ourselves? Where <em>is <em>Perry? Well, I can tell you that he is now donning his fedora and will appear shortly...in the next chapter. Thanks for reading all, and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! Thanks to all who read my first chapter, and of course special thanks to my reviewers: DarthEdocsil, huggablelove, anonymous, NattyMc, 8Tickles, and WordNerb93. I really appreciate your interest and support! As for disclaiming, I don't own Phineas and Ferb, as much as a pleasure as it would be. And now...Chapter 2!**

* * *

><p>Agent P's lair was silent, dark, and empty. Nothing stirred, no noises sounded…until Agent P himself dropped suddenly through the air and landed on the ground next to his chair. Wincing, Perry got up and took a mental note to tell Carl to fix the trajectory of the entrance chute.<p>

As Perry sat in the chair, the lights switched on and the giant screen in front of him flickered to life. But no one appeared onscreen.

"Is it on yet, Carl?" came the voice of Major Monogram.

"I don't think so, sir," the intern replied, "There's usually a red light blinking somewhere if it's on…"

"Carl, there's a red light blinking right there."

"Oh. Well, then yes, sir, it's on."

"Well, great googly-moogly, Carl, why didn't you say so?"

Major Monogram hurried onscreen and addressed the platypus beneath him.

"Good morning, Agent P," Major Monogram said. "Sorry about the delay there, it was Carl's fault."

"Sorry…" came the intern's voice from off-screen.

"Anyway," Monogram continued, "about your mission: Doofenshmirtz has been buying up all the cloves of garlic in the Tri-State Area – it sounds like he's planning to cut them and make all the citizens cry."

"Uh sir, it's actually onions that do that," Carl said.

"Quiet, Carl! Now on your way, Agent P, there's no time to lose."

Perry saluted the screen and hurried over to his wall of gadgets. Selecting his jetpack, Agent P put it on, fired it up, and launched into the air, crashing through the ceiling and heading in the direction of Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc.

"There goes a brave agent…" Monogram commented seriously, watching the platypus fly through the air. Walking off-screen, he added, "So Carl, do we have any garlic cloves left? I'm suddenly in the mood for a little garlic bread…"

"Sir, you just said Dr. Doofenshmirtz stole them all."

"Oh, right. Humbug."

.

Meanwhile, as the other teenagers sat in the Flynn-Fletcher dining room enjoying their pie, Phineas fiddled with his fork and stared out the window. He was busy thinking about what had just happened with the boomerang.

_Why do I keep getting unfocused like this?_ Phineas asked himself. _I never usually mess up our projects like that. What's wrong with me?_

Phineas glanced at Isabella, who had pulled out her Fireside Girls Manual and was searching for new patches to earn while she ate. Phineas smiled in spite of himself: he had always thought Isabella was the best Fireside Girl around. She was always determined, focused, helpful…and cute…and reliable…and cute…

"Phineas?"

"What?" he snapped awake.

"I was just making sure you were okay," Isabella said. "You were kinda staring off into space there."

"Oh, um, yeah," Phineas answered quickly. "I was just, you know, thinking about…stuff."

"Okay then, cool," she smiled. "I'll let you get back to that."

Isabella turned back to her manual, and Phineas breathed an inward sigh of relief.

_That was close_, he thought. _Almost let something slip there._

Phineas couldn't imagine what he would do if Isabella had known what he was just thinking – he would probably die of embarrassment.

_Don't worry_, he told himself. _You just think she's cute, right? I mean, anybody would. It's not like you like her or anything…right?_

Phineas glanced back over at Isabella. She brushed her hair over her ear as she turned a page in her manual. Phineas had always liked her hair: silky black and styled around her face; her very pretty face…

_Come on, get a hold of yourself, Phineas! _he said to himself. _Isabella's your best friend, you can't think about her like this! What should she say if she knew?_

Not wanting to think about that possibility, Phineas shook himself back into reality. He took a bite or two of his pie and tried to think of something, anything else to keep his mind off of Isabella.

"So everybody," Baljeet asked, "who's ready for school?"

_That'll work_, Phineas thought.

"Oh, come on, nerd, why'd you have to remind me?" Buford replied grumpily. "I was in a good mood too – I'm eating pie!"

"School isn't for another few weeks, anyway," Phineas added. "We don't have to be ready for it yet."

"You can always be ready for school," Baljeet protested. "I have been preparing all summer, I'm so excited! It is my first year officially in college…"

Buford interrupted Baljeet with a loud belch, and the boy quickly frowned in return.

"While I cannot even believe that this one passed middle school," he added.

"Hey, I didn't do that badly," Buford said. "Only two F's this past year – that's an improvement!"

"In some people's eyes," Baljeet replied sarcastically.

"Ah, high school," Isabella said dreamily, putting aside her Fireside Girls Manual. "Coming of age, taking on new responsibilities, falling in love…"

She sighed contentedly, and Phineas blushed, hoping no one would notice.

"Aren't you excited, Phineas?" Isabella asked him.

"Huh?" he said, flustered. "Oh, uh, yeah…sure, high school, really great…"

"Yeah, but when you're a freshman, it's not that great," Buford said. "You start at the bottom: everyone pushes you around, you have to sit in the worst places…not that anyone's gonna do that to me, of course. I've got a certain reputation around the high school."

"Buford, just because you followed the Bully Club around once doesn't mean you have a reputation," Baljeet said.

"Sure it does," Buford replied. "I'm a card-carrying member."

"Well, I'm sure we could design a way to make things fair for everybody in all grades," Phineas said thoughtfully. "Ferb, I know what we're gonna do when school starts…"

"Okay, slow down, kids," Linda said, coming in to collect plates. "How about you just focus on summer for now? You only have so many more days of school-free life, you should enjoy them."

"Carpe diem," Ferb added, smiling knowingly.

"Exactly," Linda replied. "Now, why don't you kids head into town and find something fun to do? I bet there's something going on in the park today."

"Ok, mom," Phineas said, and then turned to his friends. "Come on, guys, let's check it out. Thanks for the pie, mom!"

The others stood up and headed for the door, talking along the way.

"You know, Ferb," Phineas said, "people don't appreciate pie enough today. I think I've got an idea for something to build when we get to the park…"

Linda chuckled to herself as the teenagers shut the door behind them.

_Such active imaginations_, she thought.

* * *

><p><strong>Ah, if only she knew...thanks for reading all! Please feel free to review... :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone! I'm so glad this story is going over well - hope you like the next chapter! As always, special thanks to my reviewers: WordNerb93, CP3A, and iheartphinabella05. And of course, I don't own Phineas and Ferb (and I don't own Febreze either, by the way - random side note there). And without further ado, Chapter 3!**

* * *

><p>There was a sudden crash and Perry burst through the side of the Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc. building. Doofenshmirtz himself, who was standing on the other side of the lair, spun around and grinned evilly when he saw who it was.<p>

"Ah, Perry the Platypus," he said, "your planning is always so ingenious…"

A giant leaf suddenly flew out of nowhere and pinned Agent P to the wall of Doofenshmirtz's lair.

"And by ingenious, of course I mean completely genius."

The evil scientist approached the platypus, who was now struggling futilely to get out of his trap.

"So, Perry the Platypus, how do you like my new giant leaf trap?" Doofenshmirtz asked.

"Gnanananana," Agent P chattered angrily at his nemesis.

"Oh good," Doofenshmirtz replied. "I'll get some more. I can get a discount if I buy them in bulk!"

Perry rolled his eyes as the evil scientist wrote a quick memo of this down on a sticky note.

"Anyway," Doofenshmirtz went on, "I suppose you're wondering what I'm working on. Well, I'll tell ya…"

The evil scientist approached something very big on the other side of the room that was covered with a tarp.

"Behold, Perry the Platypus," Doofenshmirtz announced, "my Garlic-inator!"

The evil scientist pulled off the tarp, revealing a giant, imposing machine. Perry covered his nostrils, beginning to smell the stench the inator seemed to be named after.

"Yeah, it still leaks a little bit," Doofenshmirtz said, covering his nose as well. "But when this scheme's over I'll just have Norm spray some industrial-strength Febreze around and it'll be fine."

Perry seriously doubted that, but he made no noise as his nemesis wrote himself another note, placed a clothespin over his nose and continued.

"Anyway, I suppose you're wondering why I've decided to spread the stench of garlic around the Tri-State Area," Doofenshmirtz said, sounding even more nasal than usual. "Well, I was going to cut them up and make everyone in the Tri-State Area cry, but then I read on some kid's website that it's onions that do that. So I was kinda stuck with a lot of garlic cloves for a while, until I remembered a time in my youth where garlic and I had a big clash…and of course you know what that means…"

The platypus rolled his eyes again.

"Exactly – backstory time!" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed. Clearing his throat, he began his tale: "You see, throughout my youth in Gimmelshtump, I used to hate the smell of garlic…"

Perry sighed and did his best to get comfortable in his leaf trap. This was going to be a long day.

.

Candace lay silently on her bed, looking quite melancholy. Not only had she failed to bust Phineas and Ferb yet again, but Stacy was out of town and Jeremy wasn't answering his phone.

"Oh, Jeremy," Candace sighed, staring at the many pictures of her boyfriend that lined the ceiling above her bed. "I hoped this day would never come."

Candace feared that she knew why Jeremy wasn't returning her calls: he was leaving for college at the end of the week.

"I know you promised we'd never break up," Candace spoke out loud to the pictures, "but you're going to college! Who knows if we'll be able to maintain a long-distance relationship, if you even want to…"

Candace sighed again. Jeremy would probably be meeting all sorts of new girls in college, and would probably forget all about his girlfriend back in Danville.

"Why'd you have to go to college so far away?" Candace asked. "Why couldn't you go to Danville University like Baljeet or take a gap year or something? Now you're going to leave me all alone…and I'll have to have kids with somebody else and name them Xavier and Amanda!"

Unable to contain herself, Candace started bawling loudly.

"Candace, would you mind keeping your breakdown a little quieter?" Linda called from down the hall. "The cooking channel's on!"

"I'm in a state of crisis here, Mom!" Candace yelled back, wiping her eyes.

"Why don't you go visit Jeremy or something?" Linda suggested.

Candace broke into loud tears again at the mention of her boyfriend's name. Linda sighed, got up, and went into Candace's room.

"What's wrong, Candace?" Linda asked, sitting down beside Candace on her bed. "Did you and Jeremy have a fight?"

"No," Candace sniffled.

"Then what's wrong, sweetie?"

"Jeremy's going to college and he's going to meet all these new girls and forget about me and I'll be all alone and he'll marry someone else and it won't be me!"

"Oh, Candace, I'm sure he won't forget about you…"

"But what if he does?" Candace cried, and she started bawling again.

"Now, Candace," Linda tried to comfort her daughter, but Candace just cried harder. Thinking in desperation, Linda said, "Why don't you go to the park to take your mind off things? I thought I heard your brothers say that they were going to build something…"

Candace immediately snapped to attention. "Phineas and Ferb? Building something? Someone's gotta bust them…"

The teenage girl jumped to her feet. "…and it's gonna be me! Be back soon, mom!"

Candace sped out of the bedroom, leaving her mother in a cloud of dust. Linda sighed, feeling slightly ashamed of herself.

_Those poor boys, _she thought to herself. _Look what I've gotten them into now…_

* * *

><p><strong>Linda does tend to do that, doesn't she? Oh well, we'll see how Candace messes things up later. For now, thanks and feel free to review!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone! Thanks for sticking with me - the story begins to pick up from here (plus this chapter has Ferbnessa elements!). Of course, I'd like to especially thank this chapter's reviewers: NattyMc, Shychick, WordNerb93, and TheCartoonFanatic01 (three times!). Plus, I'd like to thank those of you who reminded me that Doof actually did enjoy garlic ice cream in his youth, something I completely forgot (silly me). Let's just say for the purposes of this fanfic that while Doof enjoys the taste of garlic ice cream, he doesn't actually like the smell of garlic in general. And to disclaim, I do not own Phineas and Ferb (or Febreze, which shows up again in this chapter, and actually will continue to do so, funnily enough). **

* * *

><p>"…And that is why you should never, <em>ever<em> milk a cow in August, Perry the Platypus. True story."

Agent P, who had dozed off in his leaf trap while Doofenshmirtz was telling his backstory, shook himself awake again. The evil scientist, however, was not impressed.

"Perry the Platypus, were you sleeping during my backstory?" Doofenshmirtz asked incredulously.

The platypus shook his head, but the evil scientist paid no attention.

"Sheesh, I go to all this trouble to prepare a backstory and you're not even paying attention!" Doofenshmirtz grumbled. "Well, at least you're not as bad as Peter the Panda – he actually destroyed my inator while I was singing about my feelings! You know, some people just don't have any manners…"

Doofenshmirtz approached the Garlic-inator as he spoke and began to press some buttons on the machine.

"Well, anyway, as long as you're sleepy, I might as well get this puppy fired up," Doofenshmirtz said. "Who knows, maybe you'll be too tired to thwart me today…"

Without warning, Agent P suddenly flew through the air and smacked Doofenshmirtz upside the head with his tail. Collapsing on the ground, the evil scientist looked back up at his nemesis in disbelief.

"Perry the Platypus, how did you escape?"

Perry indicated the leaf trap, which had a hole burnt through the middle of it.

"Oh, you used your tiny magnifying glass gadget again, didn't you?" Doofenshmirtz said. "The things your uncool acronym organization comes up with…"

The platypus interrupted him with another blow from his tail.

"Okay, that's it!" Doofenshmirtz said, and grabbed a nearby wrench. Agent P picked up a screwdriver and held it up in defense.

"Well, it appears that we are at another standoff, doesn't it, Perry the Platypus?" Doofenshmirtz commented as he and Perry circled around one another. "Either one of us could have the upper hand now…"

Agent P threw his screwdriver into Doofenshmirtz's foot.

"Ow!" the evil scientist cried, and as he grabbed his foot he promptly dropped the wrench on his other foot. He cried out in pain again as he tried to grab his other foot at the same time, which sent him falling backwards onto the floor.

"Okay, I think I just broke my spine…"

Agent P jumped over the scientist's body and landed near the control panel of the Garlic-inator.

"Wait, Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz cried, still on the floor. "Not the self-destruct button!"

Agent P ignored his nemesis and hit the button on the control panel that read "SELF-DESTRUCT." Immediately the inator began to hum and shake, before beginning to emit a greenish, smelly gas.

"Aha, I fooled you!" Doofenshmirtz said excitedly, and quickly pulled a button from his pocket and pushed it. Before Perry could do anything, a cage dropped from the ceiling and trapped him once again.

"Who knew Perry the Platypus would fall for the old switch-out-the-self-destruct-button-for-the-on-button trick?" Doofenshmirtz said as he pulled himself off the ground. "That's the oldest trick in the book! Well, except for maybe the rabbit out of the hat one, but you remember how I had issues with that one when I was younger, so it's not even worth mentioning."

Agent P chattered angrily and shook the sturdy bars of his cage in vain.

"You know, I think I'm gonna go back to cages for trapping," Doofenshmirtz commented. "I think the whole leaf thing might've been a poor idea on my part..."

Perry rolled his eyes again and turned his attention to the Garlic-inator, whose scent, now that the machine was fully operational, was beginning to strongly overpower the lair. He would have to stop it soon, or before long the entire Tri-State Area would smell like garlic, just as Doofenshmirtz had planned.

"Wow, this garlic smell really is powerful," Doofenshmirtz said, coughing and waving his hand to dispel the gas. "I'll have to tell Norm to get New Zealand scent Febreze to deal with this one…"

Doofenshmirtz grabbed a few more clothespins and put them over his nose, before heading over to his hover pad on the deck.

"Anyway, I'm off to see my evil scheme in action!" the evil scientist called back to Agent P, almost unintelligibly due to his clogged nasal passages. "Hasta la vista, Perry the Platypus!"

And with that, Doofenshmirtz started up the hover pad and took off into the sky. Agent P sighed, covered his own nostrils, and reached through the bars of the cage for the screwdriver Doofenshmirtz had left on the ground. Sticking it into the keyhole of the cage, he began fiddling with the lock mechanism.

This was bound to take a while.

.

"And…perfect!"

Phineas stood back and admired the gang's handiwork. Then, turning to the crowd of people that was gathering behind them, Phineas held up a megaphone and announced, "The First Annual Danville Pie Festival is now open!"

"Me first!" Buford yelled as he ran forward into the maze of tents, followed by a mad rush from the rest of the crowd. Phineas had to hang onto Ferb for support as people nearly knocked them over in their excitement.

"Yep, the pie festival was definitely a good idea," Phineas smiled.

The brothers approached the tents and began to oversee the festivities. There was a pie-eating contest, a pie-throwing contest, a pie-making contest, a pie history exhibit, a pie hall of fame…and the people were loving it. Phineas watched everything with a beaming smile – who knew how happy you could make people with something as simple as pie?

"Phineas," came a sudden voice from the boy's walkie-talkie.

"Yes, Isabella?" Phineas answered, picking up the device.

"We've got a situation in section four," Isabella replied.

Phineas glanced over at the other side of the festival and saw that Buford, rather than throwing his pies at the given target in the pie-throwing contest, was instead aiming them at passerby. Phineas shook his head, half-laughing.

"I'll be right there," he said into the walkie-talkie. Turning to his brother, he said, "Can you hold down the fort over here, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded, and Phineas turned around and went to find Isabella. Ferb turned back to face the other tents, and suddenly froze.

Before him stood the most beautiful creature he'd ever laid eyes on, the girl he'd been in love with for years: Vanessa Doofenshmirtz. She was walking through the festival and perusing all the different pies, wearing her signature all-black outfit and a pair of sunglasses.

_Vanessa, _Ferb sighed to himself. _Even her name is gorgeous…_

Vanessa glanced over at the boy as she walked, and suddenly, realizing who it was, lowered her sunglasses to check. "Ferb?"

"Hello, Vanessa," the boy answered breathlessly.

"Well, fancy seeing you here," she replied, smiling at her old friend. "But then again, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You and your brother are always around at things like this."

Ferb nodded and grinned in reply.

"Still a man of action then," Vanessa grinned back. "I've always admired that about you."

Ferb felt himself blushing, but quickly tried to cover it up by indicating behind him.

"Care to take a tour of the rest of the festival?" he asked, being as smooth as possible.

"Well, I'd love to, Ferb," Vanessa answered, "but…"

"Hey, Vanessa," came a voice from behind them.

Ferb turned and saw a boy Vanessa's age dressed in punk clothing approaching them. Before Ferb could even ask who he was, the boy quickly grabbed Vanessa around the waist and planted a kiss on her lips. Shocked, Ferb found he couldn't even speak as the two broke apart.

"Well, Ferb," Vanessa said, looking slightly embarrassed, "this is my boyfriend Johnny."

_Boyfriend_. The word hit Ferb like a sledgehammer. Stunned into silence, he barely even listened as Vanessa continued.

"I promised I'd spend the day with him," she said, "so I guess the tour will have to wait. Maybe some other time, okay?"

Ferb stared off into space and nodded. All he could hear in his head was that word, _boyfriend_, repeating over and over again in his mind. Vanessa looked concernedly at him.

"Are you okay, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded unenthusiastically, but Vanessa didn't press the issue.

"Okay then," she said. "I guess I'll see you later, Ferb."

Vanessa turned around and began to walk off with Johnny.

"Later, little dude," the punk boy added as he caught up with his girlfriend. Ferb watched motionlessly as Johnny put his arm around Vanessa until they disappeared from sight.

_Boyfriend…boyfriend…boyfriend…_

The word echoed through Ferb's head, pounding harder every time. And the image of Vanessa and Johnny kissing seemed to be burned on his brain.

_Boyfriend…boyfriend…boyfriend…_

"Ferb!" came a voice suddenly, startling the young teen. Realizing it was just Phineas on the walkie-talkie, he picked it up.

"We might need some help over here in section four…"

Ferb looked over to the pie-throwing contest and saw Phineas and Isabella crouching under a table, sheltering themselves from a big pie fight that had ensued, headed by Buford. Ferb glanced back in the direction Vanessa had left and sighed solemnly.

"Be right there," Ferb spoke into the walkie-talkie, and he went off to help his brother.

* * *

><p><strong>Poor Ferb...but don't worry, we'll see more of him and Vanessa later. By the way, New Zealand Scent Febreze is actually a real thing, I looked it up after my sister told me about it. She's the one who gave me the idea for adding Febreze into the story in the first place as well - kinda random, I know, but it'll all come together later, you'll see. :) Anyway, thanks for reading, and please review! <strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everybody! I'm so excited to hear how everyone's enjoying the story, especially, of course from my reviewers! Special thanks this time to NattyMc, iheartphinabella05, WordNerb93, and TheCartoonFanatic01! To disclaim, I do not own Phineas and Ferb (or New Zealand Scent Febreze). And now: Chapter 5!**

* * *

><p>Agent P coughed and covered his nostrils as he fiddled with the screwdriver in the lock. The garlic gas was filling Doofenshmirtz's lair quickly, making it difficult for Perry to breathe. It seemed to be spreading into the street too; he didn't have much time before the stench would be all through downtown. He just had to break open this lock…<p>

Suddenly, the door to the lair burst wide open, revealing Norm, who was carrying several overstuffed grocery bags.

"I've got groceries!" Norm chanted cheerfully as he walked inside. Dropping them not too carefully on the ground, he walked in his robotic fashion over to the gas-filled side of the lair.

"Hello?" Norm called into the gas. "Father, are you there?"

Perry knocked on the bars of his cage, catching Norm's attention.

"Oh, it's only you," Norm said in his friendly-sounding voice, oblivious to the garlic gas that Perry was now choking on. "Have you seen my father?"

Perry coughed and pointed in the direction of the open-air deck of the lair. Norm headed over there, stomping the ground heavily with his robotic footsteps.

"Hello? Dad?" Norm called through the gas, unable to see anything. "Are you there?"

Norm continued to search around the lair blindly for the evil scientist as Perry glanced back over to the groceries that the robot had dropped. One of the bags was on its side, spilling contents as Norm shook the floor with his feet. Noticing a small bottle of something fall out of the bag, Agent P watched as the bottle rolled and jumped with every step of Norm's foot until it eventually landed close to Perry's cage. He quickly reached through the bars, grabbed it, and read the label: _Hydrochloric Acid_.

Ignoring the odd choice in the scientist's groceries, Agent P carefully unscrewed the bottle, and being sure not to spill any on himself, poured the acid on the lock mechanism of the cage. Immediately the lock began to erode. Perry waited for the bubbling metal to dissipate, then kicked open the cage door and jumped out.

"Dad, is that you?" Norm called through the gas that continued to obscure the room.

Agent P silently rushed over to the other grocery bags on the floor and quickly rifled through them as he heard Norm walk in his direction. Perry searched hurriedly until he found the product he was looking for: Industrial-Strength New Zealand Scent Febreze.

"Dad...?" Norm called again, and Agent P quickly rushed around him and into the garlic gas. Holding his breath, Perry felt his way over to the Garlic-inator, spraying small bursts of Febreze along the way. Finding the back of the inator with his paws, he found a small hatch, opened it, and found a pile of rotting garlic cloves lying there. Spraying even more fervently into the hatch, Agent P grabbed a tube in the back of the hatch labeled "Stench Collection Tube", and taking off the spray top of the Febreze bottle, attached the bottle to the tube.

The Garlic-inator hummed and shook for a few seconds before suddenly seeming to calm down and emit a cool, sweet-smelling, clear gas. In a few moments the entire lair was clear of the garlic gas and smell. Perry took a deep breath and sighed with relief.

"Perry the Platypus, how did you escape?" Norm said suddenly, startling the agent as the robot quoted his creator. Thinking quickly, Agent P ran back over to his empty cage, followed by Norm.

"We should settle our differences over lunch…" Norm began, but Agent P, grabbing the screwdriver he had left in the cage, slid between the robot's legs and jumped on his back. Perry quickly unscrewed a panel and found the wires to Norm's internal circuits. Before Norm could react, Perry had torn apart the wires and reconnected them differently, resulting in jets sprouting from Norm's feet.

"Uh oh…" Norm said, and without warning the jets lit up, sending the robot flying into the air. Agent P clung on tightly as Norm soared out of the Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc. building and into the sky, scaring a flock of pigeons away as he flew by.

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Norm said in his calm voice as they shot high into the air. Agent P, staying collected, pulled himself back up to Norm's internal circuits and grabbed some of the wires. As the platypus tapped the wires together, the robot's jets suddenly changed direction and began to aim the two back downtown.

"Where are we going now?" Norm asked, but Agent P gave no response. He simply looked ahead, searching the skies. Though he had fixed the Garlic-inator problem, Perry knew there was one last problem to solve before the day's mission would be through…a problem flying on a hover pad somewhere above Danville…

.

"You know, I really need to fix the turning on this thing," Doofenshmirtz noted to himself as he swerved his hover pad past a tall building, narrowly missing it. Pulling away and above the nearby rooftops, the evil scientist braked and turned off the engine.

"I should probably just stop this for a while," Doofenshmirtz said. "Give it some time to, you know, cool down…don't you think so, Perry the Platypus?"

The scientist turned around, expecting to hear his nemesis' familiar chatter, but saw no one.

"Oh right," Doofenshmirtz realized aloud, "I left Perry the Platypus back in my lair…bummer. Now I've got no one to rant to."

Doofenshmirtz crossed his arms and leaned against the hover pad controls, rather bored with his plan now.

"Being evil just isn't as much fun without Perry the Platypus…" the scientist commented sadly to no one in particular, not realizing that his elbow was dangerously close to the hover pad start button. Doofenshmirtz sighed as a breeze blew by, and suddenly he caught a whiff of something.

"Is that…New Zealand?" the evil scientist said, and without thinking, moved his elbow onto the button as he tried to smell the breeze again.

Before the evil scientist knew what was happening, the hover pad started up again and took off through the air at high speed. Doofenshmirtz fell flat on his face and began to slide backwards off the pad.

"Uh oh, this can't be good…"

Suddenly, the hover pad grazed the side of a building, sending the pad spinning out of control. Doofenshmirtz grabbed the sides of the pad with both hands, trying to hang on. And he was powerless to stop the pad as it went flying off in the direction of the park.

"You know, this isn't what I had in mind when I woke up today..."

.

"You know, Ferb, even though this isn't what we had in mind when we woke up today, I think things have turned out pretty well, don't you?"

Phineas and Ferb were standing on the big stage at the festival, looking out over the crowd that was gathering. Having resolved the pie fight issue, the two were just getting ready to present the final award of the day: the Biggest Pie Contest Award.

"Ferb?" Phineas asked, noticing his brother's silence. "Are you all right?"

Ferb nodded, but didn't face his brother. He had just spotted Vanessa and Johnny in the crowd.

"Okay," Phineas said, unsure of his brother's truthfulness. Ferb had been very solemn ever since he had helped end the pie fight, and Phineas was concerned about his unusual behavior. Phineas just hoped nothing had happened…

"Ladies and gentlemen!" came a voice suddenly from over the loudspeakers, startling the pensive brothers and calming the crowd. "It's the duo that brought you Cheesetopia and The Coolest Coaster Ever – they've been across the world and even the galaxy, and now they've become the founders of the Annual Danville Pie Festival! Introducing…Phineas and Ferb!"

The crowd went wild with cheers and applause. Phineas beamed and Ferb grinned in spite of himself as the two approached the podium at the center of the stage. Phineas glanced offstage and saw Isabella, who was working the com, smile and give him a thumbs-up. Blushing, Phineas did his best to stay calm and stood in front of the microphone.

"Thank you, thank you," Phineas began to speak, quieting the crowd. "Ferb and I would just like to say that we're always so excited to build things for you all, and we're so happy that everyone's enjoying themselves today. Carpe diem!"

The crowd clapped again enthusiastically.

"And now," Phineas said as the applause died down, "before we get to the Biggest Pie award, we'd like to introduce our judges for the contest. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Baljeet!"

Phineas gestured over to a table on the other side of the stage, where Baljeet was sitting. The boy waved at the crowd as they applauded.

"Adyson Sweetwater!"

The Fireside Girl happily saluted the crowd in response to their cheers. Phineas began to say the last name, but glanced at the last seat at the table and noticed it was empty.

"Huh…" he said, "I guess our last judge isn't here yet…"

"Phineas and Ferb you are so busted!"

"I stand corrected," Phineas smiled.

Candace appeared from behind the stage and hurried over to her brothers, shaking her finger wildly at them.

"Phineas and Ferb, how could you build this…?" Candace stopped, realizing she didn't actually know what they had built.

"It's a pie festival, Candace," Phineas said.

"…Pie festival!" Candace continued. "I knew that. But you two are so busted!"

"But Candace, don't you want to help decide the winner of the Biggest Pie Contest?" Phineas asked. "We signed you up to be a judge."

"Wait, Biggest Pie Contest? Why do you need judges for that? Why don't you just measure the pies and see which one's the biggest?"

"Say, that's not a bad idea," Baljeet added. Turning to Adyson, he asked, "Did we not already measure the pies?"

"Oh yeah," Adyson said, "I guess we did…"

"Well then, which one was the biggest?" Candace asked exasperatedly.

"I think it's probably that one," Ferb said suddenly, and pointed off to behind the crowd.

"Okay, wheel it in, girls!" Isabella called from offstage, and from behind the tents appeared the biggest pie anyone had ever seen being wheeled in on several wagons by the Fireside Girls.

"Whoa," Candace said, unable to contain herself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a late entry!" Phineas grinned as he spoke into the microphone.

Everyone watched in awe as the Fireside Girls pulled the giant pie to the front of the crowd. Isabella stood onstage and spoke to the audience.

"Fireside Girls Troop 46231 would like to submit this blueberry pie, which is 21 feet and 9 inches in diameter!"

Baljeet grabbed a tape measurer and hurried down to the entry, followed by Adyson. Giving one end to Adyson, Baljeet ran around to the other side of the pie, holding the tape measurer above.

"The diameter is indeed 21 feet and 9 inches!" Baljeet called excitedly as he took the measurement.

"Well then," Phineas announced, "I think it's safe to say that the award for the Biggest Pie goes to Fireside Girls Troop 46321!"

A big cheer went up through the crowd. Isabella squealed in excitement and gave Phineas a hug, causing him to blush profusely. Buford squealed too as he ran up to the pie, climbed up the edge of the pie pan, and began to take large bites of the pastry.

"Hey wait, everybody!" Candace yelled, tried to return attention to her. "I still have to bust my brothers!" But no one could hear her over the clamor, and she eventually gave up. Grumbling, Candace pulled out her phone instead. Pressing the first number on her speed dial, she placed the phone to her ear.

"_Hi, this is Mom. Leave your psychotic rant about the boys when you hear the beep._"

Grimacing at the voicemail that her mother had kept on her phone for several years, Candace began to speak quickly.

"Mom, you've gotta come to the park! Phineas and Ferb built a pie festival and now there's this giant pie and you've gotta bust them! Get here soon!"

Candace hung up her phone and surveyed the scene. Baljeet was doing his best to pull Buford off the pie and Phineas and Ferb were high-fiving one another, all while the crowd continued to cheer.

_Wait a minute_, Candace thought, _the crowd's still here! The festival can't disappear while everyone's still here! Yes! Those two are so busted!_

Candace grinned and laughed her signature laugh to herself. There was no way the boys were going to get out of this one…

* * *

><p><strong>Well, we'll see if that's true, won't we?...In the next chapter! Thanks for reading everyone, and feel free to drop along a review!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone! Thanks again to everyone who read this last chapter, and of course to my wonderful reviewers: NattyMc, 8Tickles, and TheCartoonFanatic01. So to make this short and sweet, I don't own Phineas and Ferb (or New Zealand Scent Febreze), and I now present to you Chapter 6!**

* * *

><p>"I've got no clue how I'm getting outta this one…"<p>

Doofenshmirtz was continuing to spin across the Tri-State Area in mid-air, hanging limply onto his hover pad, which was heading in the direction of the park.

"Unh," Doofenshmirtz grunted as he tried to turn himself around on the pad. "I really need to work out more."

Eventually the evil scientist turned around, and doing his best to balance himself, quickly reached up and pressed the on button on the controls. The hover pad came screeching to a halt, causing Doofenshmirtz to nearly fall off the side, but he was able to hang on.

"Phew," he said, getting up, "that was a close one! It's a good thing Perry the Platypus wasn't here to see me mess up like that…"

Doofenshmirtz brushed himself off and absent-mindedly turned around…only to find himself staring at a flying robot with a platypus in a fedora on its back heading straight towards him.

"Oh, poop."

Norm crashed head on into Doofenshmirtz's hover pad just as Agent P jumped off the back and launched his hang glider. And so Perry sailed calmly above as the hover pad's controls exploded and sent Norm and Doofenshmirtz spiraling towards the park below.

"Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz cried as he fell.

Perry grinned: the day's mission was officially done. Aiming his hang glider towards the ground, the platypus sailed calmly towards the tents that were situated beneath him…

.

Candace was getting more and more frustrated as the crowd continued to celebrate the pie festival, and her mom still had not arrived to bust the boys.

"Come on, Mom," Candace muttered to herself, tapping her foot impatiently. She growled as Phineas and Ferb were suddenly picked up by the crowd and carried on their shoulders as everyone shouted her brothers' names.

"Arghh…I can't take it anymore!" Candace yelled. Approaching the onstage microphone, she spoke loudly to the crowd, "Okay, everyone, that's it! Phineas and Ferb, you two are so busted…!"

Suddenly Candace heard someone yelling from above her head. Looking up quizzically, she saw something that was falling in front of her, heading right for the award-winning giant blueberry pie.

"Oh, poop."

There was a huge explosion as the object landed in the pie. Pastry and blueberries flew everywhere, covering Candace from head to toe. The force of the blast sent her flying off the stage and landing not too softly on the grass nearby. Candace's head swam for a few moments until she finally had the strength to sit up and look around.

"No! Not again!"

The entire festival – tents, stage, and all – had mysteriously disappeared. All that was left was the giant pie pan and the crowd, covered in blueberry pie remains.

"Oh, great," someone said, "now I've got to go home and wash my clothes!"

The entire crowd murmured in agreement and began to disperse. Candace hurriedly jumped up and tried to stop them.

"Wait, no, no!" she yelled. "You can't leave yet! You've got to wait until my mom shows up…!"

But the crowd had left the park before she could do anything about it. Candace dropped her head in her hands as Phineas, Ferb, and their friends, who had been knocked down and covered in pie themselves, got up and noticed the missing festival.

"Huh," Phineas commented, "I guess the force of the blast blew away the entire festival."

"Except for the pie pan," Ferb added.

"Wait, that's it!" Candace said suddenly, looking up. "The pie pan! I still have proof! You two are still bust…"

Without warning, there was another explosion, forcing Candace to cover her eyes. When she removed her hands, the pie pan had also mysteriously disappeared, and the only remnants of it were a faint sound of someone crying above, "Curse you again, Perry the Platypus!" and the blueberry pastry that still covered everyone around them.

Candace collapsed into her hands once more. Phineas looked slightly concerned and was about to say something, but his sister suddenly lifted her head again.

"Wait, we're all still covered in pie!" Candace exclaimed. "That's still proof! You two are so…"

"Oh, there you are, Perry," Phineas interrupted, and Candace glanced down to see the pet platypus licking the pie off of Phineas's leg.

"Wait, no, Perry! Don't do that!" Candace yelled, and pulled the animal away. "That's evidence!"

"Tasty evidence," Buford added, and Candace, horrified, turned to see that he was licking the pie off of himself.

"Wait, no!" Candace shouted again, dropping Perry, who immediately went back to lick pie off of Phineas again.

"No, no…arghh!"

Candace slumped on the ground and sighed heavily as she watched Perry and Buford clean the pie off of the others. She didn't even react as she heard a car door slam behind her, and saw her mom appear by her side.

"Hello, kids," Linda called cheerfully to the other teens, who were now perfectly clean.

"Hi, Mom!" Phineas called back.

Linda smiled and turned to Candace, causing her to do a double-take.

"Candace! What is that all over you?"

"Blueberry pie…" Candace mumbled sadly.

"Well, come on, I'll take you home and get you cleaned up," Linda said. Candace reluctantly stood up and followed her mother back towards the car.

"I just don't know how you kids get yourselves into these things," Linda told her daughter as she got into the car.

"If only you _did_ know, Mom…" Candace sighed, and she got into the car herself. The rest of the teens watched as the car drove away, and then Phineas turned to his friends.

"Well, guys," he said, "I guess we can consider this day seized!"

The gang cheered and began to walk away, knowing their work for the day was done. But Ferb stayed behind for a moment, taking one last look at the empty park and smelling the breeze.

"Wait," he asked, "does anyone else smell…New Zealand?"

.

"Of course you realize this is all your fault, Norm," Doofenshmirtz said as he pushed open the door to his lair and straggled in, his robot servant following him. The evil scientist was covered in soot and wobbled on one leg, having injured his other in the many explosions he'd been through during the day.

"It wasn't my fault, Dad," Norm protested. "It was your idea to buy the hydrochloric acid and Febreze…"

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, blame it all on me…and I'm not your father! Besides, you were the one who turned on your jets when we landed in that pie pan – which was kinda weird, by the way, I mean who puts random pie pans in the park? Must've been some modern art thing."

The evil scientist suddenly heard a door open from behind him, and turned around to see his daughter Vanessa walking into the room, headphones in her ears.

"Oh, hi, Vanessa," Doofenshmirtz said, "I didn't realize you were home! How was your date with, er, Bobby…no, um, Jerry…no…"

"Johnny, Dad."

"Oh, right. I knew that."

"It was fine," Vanessa sighed, sitting down in a chair and taking her earbuds out. She looked solemn for a minute, but she brightened up when she added, "Oh, and I ran into Ferb Fletcher at this festival Johnny and I were at."

"Oh, right, I remember him," the scientist added. "He's that kid you're always talking about: the one with the green hair."

"Yep, that's him."

"I feel like I've seen him somewhere before…" Doofenshmirtz thought aloud. "He looked kinda like a hoodlum."

"Dad! Ferb is not a hoodlum!" Vanessa protested. "He's a sweet kid – and an inventor too, you'd appreciate that."

"Oh, an inventor, eh?" Doofenshmirtz commented. "Hmmm, I guess that makes him slightly less hoodlumy…"

"Ferb and his brother Phineas actually built that entire festival today from scratch," Vanessa told her father. "And they've built a lot of other cool things over the years, too. You'd be impressed with what they've done."

"Really?" the scientist responded. "Hmmmm…sounds like they'd be useful in helping me carry out some evil schemes!"

"No, Dad," Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Phineas and Ferb only build _good_ things for _fun_ – not evil."

"Oh, poop," Doofenshmirtz replied. "That's too bad. I could really use a better assistant than Norm…"

"Sir, I'm right here," Norm called from behind the scientist.

"Oh, be quiet, you overgrown rustbucket!" Doofenshmirtz shouted back at his robot creation. Frowning and looking very sad, Norm walked stiffly out of the room.

"Dad!" Vanessa exclaimed. "Why do you always to that to Norm? He's never done anything to you."

"Actually, he's done quite a few things to me," Doofenshmirtz said, "but the list is too long to get into right now. So anyway, you were talking about those kids…Vinny and Merv, right?"

"Wow, Dad," Vanessa said sarcastically as she put her headphones back in and began to walk out of the room.

"No, wait, Vanessa…!" the evil scientist called after his daughter, but she shut the door behind her. Alone in the lair, Doofenshmirtz sighed sadly and sat down quietly in a chair. At least, until he realized what the space now smelled like.

"Oh yeah, I forgot: my entire lair smells like New Zealand now," the scientist said, coughing. "That's even worse than garlic! Why'd I even tell Norm to buy that scent anyway?"

Doofenshmirtz got back up and went over to his refurbished Garlic-inator, muttering to himself.

"Where's the on button…oh yes, there it is…."

The evil scientist pressed the button on the control panel that read "ON," and suddenly found himself being thrown backwards into the wall with the force of yet another explosion.

"Yep – totally forgot about the whole switching-out-the-on-button-for-the-self-destruct-button thing," the scientist said in a daze as he collapsed on the ground of his newly-destroyed lair. "I suppose I deserved that one…"

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, yes he did. Thanks for reading everyone, and please review! :)<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello all! Sorry for the delay, but hopefully this chapter will give you some insight into Doof's plan and that'll be worth it! Also, I've begun to catch up with myself where I don't have chapters written in advance, so that may mean a little longer in between chapters, but I'll do my best to keep them on a semi-regular schedule. Anyway, I'd like to thank my lovely reviwers: NattyMc, iheartphinabella05, TheCartoonFanatic01, 8Tickles, WordNerb93, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan. As for disclaiming, I don't own Phineas and Ferb, and as for the story, here's Chapter 7!**

* * *

><p>"Good night, Perry!"<p>

Phineas flicked off the light switch as he and Ferb got into their beds. Perry curled up in his bed on the floor and chattered back cheerfully. All was quite for a while as the brothers silently lay in bed, thinking back over their day. Phineas broke the silence after a few moments.

"Hey, Ferb?" Phineas spoke. "Can I ask you something?"

Ferb turned to face his brother and nodded.

"Do you think…?" Phineas began to say, but stopped himself. "Never mind, dumb question..."

Ferb raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, okay, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, all right?" Phineas replied. Ferb nodded, and Phineas nervously twiddled his thumbs as he continued.

"Do you think...that maybe if I…you know…"

Ferb motioned for his brother to get on with it.

"Okay, okay, I'll spit it out," Phineas said. Taking a deep breath, he began to talk very quickly: "I think I might like Isabella."

Phineas was silent for a moment, and Ferb, as usual, said nothing.

"So, what should I do?" Phineas said tentatively. When his brother didn't answer, he added, "I mean, do you think she might…you know…be interested in me? Maybe?"

Ferb continued to say nothing, so Phineas continued to speak.

"I mean, I don't want her to…I mean, I don't want this to, you know, change anything…but I just don't know what to do…"

Ferb remained silent, causing Phineas to frown.

"Okay, fine, if you don't want to help…" he said, turning away in frustration.

Suddenly, Phineas heard a low rumble coming from Ferb's side of the room. It grew louder and louder after a few moments, until Phineas turned back around to find his brother full out laughing.

"What?" Phineas asked. "What's so funny?"

Ferb continued to laugh, unable to stop himself, causing to Phineas frown again.

"Oh, I can't tell you, Phineas," Ferb spoke finally between laughs. "If only you could open your eyes…"

Ferb kept laughing in spite of himself.

"You know, you're really hilarious, Ferb," Phineas said sarcastically. "Really funny."

"Sorry," Ferb said, calming his laughter, "but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

And with that Ferb turned back around to try and get some sleep. Phineas turned around himself, grumbling a little.

_You know,_ Phineas thought to himself, _even if he is my brother, he can be really frustrating sometimes…_

.

"Geez, these particle re-duplicator thingies can be really frustrating sometimes!"

Doofenshmirtz raised his hammer and tried to drive a nail into in the invention he was working on, but ending up crushing the thumb of his hand holding the nail instead.

"Ow!" he cried, and grabbed his thumb, dropping the hammer on his foot, which he had bandaged as a result of the events earlier in the day.

"Ow!" Doofenshmirtz cried again, and grabbed his foot, causing him to lose balance and land hard on his back.

"Ow!" he cried a final time, and rolled stiffly over on his side. "Why do I keep doing that…?"

Suddenly, Vanessa thrust open the door to the evil scientist's lair and walked in, dressed in her pajamas and looking quite grumpy and tired.

"Dad, it's the middle of the night," Vanessa said. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"I'm just working on my latest invention," the scientist said, pulling himself painfully to his feet. Stretching himself out, he gestured to the hunk of metal beside him and added, "See?"

"And why do you have to work on it while I'm trying to sleep?" Vanessa replied, unimpressed.

"Well, I just wanted to get started," Doofenshmirtz responded. "You know, get a jump on things before Perry the Platypus tries to mess them up again."

"Yeah, that's great, Dad," Vanessa said, rolling her eyes. "What is it, anyway?"

"Oh, continuing to take an interest in evil, are we?" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed, causing Vanessa to hit herself in the head for her stupidity. "Well then, let me introduce to you the Duplicator-inator 3!"

Doofenshmirtz gestured again to the hunk of metal beside him, which at the moment didn't look like much of anything. Vanessa, not even wanting to know why this Duplicator-inator was the third one, sighed as her father continued.

"I've made some modifications to my Duplicator-inator 2, see," Doofenshmirtz went on, "so now these duplicates won't only last for 3 minutes anymore. Plus, they'll be more than just heads and arms this time: real full bodies! See, Vanessa, I'm learning from my mistakes! That's a good tip for you there."

Vanessa resisted the urge to hit herself in the head again, and instead said, "Sure…that's great, Dad. Can you just keep it down, okay? I think all of downtown Danville would appreciate it."

And with that Vanessa left the room and shut the door loudly.

"Sheesh, tough crowd," Doofenshmirtz commented to himself, then turned back to his invention and continued working. "I think Perry the Platypus will be really impressed with this one…"

.

"Agent P!"

Perry was snoring as he slept in the darkness of Phineas and Ferb's room. The brothers had since fallen asleep, so no one could hear the tiny watch on Perry's arm as it beeped and showed Major Monogram's face on the display.

"Agent P!"

Perry snored again loudly and turned over unconsciously, burying his arm into his pet bed.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" came Monogram's muffled voice. Sighing, the major added, "I think he must be asleep, Carl."

"No problem, sir," came the intern's voice, "I'll get him down here."

There was a moment of silence, and then the floor began to shake beneath Perry's bed, startling the platypus awake. Opening his eyes, Perry was aware of his surroundings for a moment, before he suddenly felt the floor drop from under him and could do nothing as he fell dramatically down into a steep, metal chute. Perry slid down the chute on his bed for a few moments before falling through the ceiling of the lair and landing painfully on the ground next to his chair.

"Ooh!" Major Monogram said, watching from the monitor in front of the platypus. "That's gotta hurt!"

Perry stood up stiffly, walked over to his chair and sat down, not at all amused.

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to change the trajectory again, didn't I?" Carl said, poking his head onscreen. "Sorry about that, Agent P, I'll get right on that."

"Oh yeah, and we woke you up in the middle of the night," Monogram realized. "Sorry about that too."

Perry continued to frown, but he grabbed his agent hat off its stand next to the monitor and placed it on his head, ready to listen to what Monogram had to say.

"Anyway, Agent P," the major continued, "there's an emergency downtown! Dr. Doofenshmirtz appears to have collected the materials necessary to build a new Duplicator-inator! You remember the last one, right? The Duplicator-inator 2?"

"We're not sure what happened to the first one," Carl added from off-screen.

"And it looks like this new one's going to be even more sophisticated!" Monogram continued. "Who would've thought, Doof learning from his mistakes…"

Agent P, though he couldn't help but agree, still failed to see why he was awake in the middle of the night, and folded his arms impatiently.

"Oh, right, I was telling you the point of all this," Monogram realized. "Well, Agent P, we've just received some information that Dr. D has already begun building his new inator. We think he might be trying to get a headstart on your battle for tomorrow. So we're sending you over there to put a stop to it!"

Agent P looked up at his superior, arms still folded grumpily.

"Well, I suppose we could've let you sleep a little more and just let you fight him tomorrow," Monogram thought aloud, "but then he would've gotten a headstart, just like he wanted!"

Perry rubbed his eyes and stood up. At this time of night, he did not particularly care if his nemesis had a headstart, but he walked over to his jetpack anyway.

"That's the spirit, Agent P!" Carl called out, poking his head onscreen as the platypus strapped his jetpack on. "Go get him!"

Agent P sighed, whacked himself in the head once to wake himself up, and then took off into the air. He really needed to renegotiate the terms of his employment hours with the OWCA…

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, I know I wouldn't like to be woken up in the middle of the night for that. Thanks for reading everyone! I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please leave a review!<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey everyone! Yeah, so much for the semi-regular schedule I promised...I'm so sorry! You know how it is, life gets in the way...but I'm on spring break now, so I have plenty of time to write. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good ways in the story before school starts back up, so maybe my semi-regular schedule will actually come through this time...**

**Anyway, I'd like to thank my wonderful reviewers for this chapter! Thanks to iheartphinabella05, NattyMc, WordNerb93, 8Tickles, TheCartoonFanatic01, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan - you guys are great. Of course, I don't own Phineas and Ferb. Anyway, thanks for bearing with me everyone, and now presenting Chapter 8!**

* * *

><p>"Agent P!"<p>

Perry was snoring as he slept in the darkness of Phineas and Ferb's room. The brothers had since fallen asleep, so no one could hear the tiny watch on Perry's arm as it beeped and showed Major Monogram's face on the display.

"Agent P!"

Perry snored again loudly and turned over unconsciously, burying his arm into his pet bed.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?" came Monogram's muffled voice. Sighing, the major added, "I think he must be asleep, Carl."

"No problem, sir," came the intern's voice, "I'll get him down here."

There was a moment of silence, and then the floor began to shake beneath Perry's bed, startling the platypus awake. Opening his eyes, Perry was aware of his surroundings for a moment, before he suddenly felt the floor drop from under him and could do nothing as he fell dramatically down into a steep, metal chute. Perry slid down the chute on his bed for a few moments before falling through the ceiling of the lair and landing painfully on the ground next to his chair.

"Ooh!" Major Monogram said, watching from the monitor in front of the platypus. "That's gotta hurt!"

Perry stood up stiffly, walked over to his chair and sat down, not at all amused.

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to change the trajectory again, didn't I?" Carl said, poking his head onscreen. "Sorry about that, Agent P, I'll get right on that."

"Oh yeah, and we woke you up in the middle of the night," Monogram realized. "Sorry about that too."

Perry continued to frown, but he grabbed his agent hat off its stand next to the monitor and placed it on his head, ready to listen to what Monogram had to say.

"Anyway, Agent P," the major continued, "there's an emergency downtown! Dr. Doofenshmirtz appears to have collected the materials necessary to build a new Duplicator-inator! You remember the last one, right? The Duplicator-inator 2?"

"We're not sure what happened to the first one," Carl added from off-screen.

"And it looks like this new one's going to be even more sophisticated!" Monogram continued. "Who would've thought, Doof learning from his mistakes…"

Agent P, though he couldn't help but agree, still failed to see why he was awake in the middle of the night, and folded his arms impatiently.

"Oh, right, I was telling you the point of all this," Monogram realized. "Well, Agent P, we've just received some information that Dr. D has already begun building his new inator. We think he might be trying to get a headstart on your battle for tomorrow. So we're sending you over there to put a stop to it!"

Agent P looked up at his superior, arms still folded grumpily.

"Well, I suppose we could've let you sleep a little more and just let you fight him tomorrow," Monogram thought aloud, "but then he would've gotten a headstart, just like he wanted!"

Perry rubbed his eyes and stood up. At this time of night, he did not particularly care if his nemesis had a headstart, but he walked over to his jetpack anyway.

"That's the spirit, Agent P!" Carl called out, poking his head onscreen as the platypus strapped his jetpack on. "Go get him!"

Agent P sighed, whacked himself in the head once to wake himself up, and then took off into the air. He really needed to renegotiate the terms of his employment hours with the OWCA…

.

_"Beautiful, kind, and gentle…beautiful, kind, and gentle…"_

Candace awoke to an abrupt start. She grabbed her phone from beside her bedside table and checked the screen.

"Nothing," Candace sighed, and fell back on her pillow, saddened. That was the third time that night she had imagined her dreamy preset ringtone for Jeremy going off.

_Why can't he just call me?_ Candace thought. "Oh, Jeremy," she sighed aloud to the pictures above her bed, "I just want to see you…"

Candace sat up suddenly. "Well, why not? I'll go see you!"

Throwing the covers off herself, she stood up quickly and grabbed the coat nearby her bed. She was just about to thrust open her bedroom door and march out, when she realized something.

_Oh, right, _she thought. _It's the middle of the night. Forgot about that._

Candace sighed again and sat back down on her bed. _If only Mom and Dad didn't have that curfew in place…_

"But wait!" Candace perked up, speaking aloud in excitement. "I'm eighteen now! I'm an adult! I don't have to follow Mom and Dad's curfews anymore!"

A loud snore suddenly sounded from her parents' room down the hall, startling the girl.

_Well, maybe I should just make sure to be quiet,_ Candace thought to herself. She stood up silently and tiptoed over to her bedroom door. Opening it carefully, she cringed as the door creaked, but hearing nothing, continued out into the hallway. Walking especially cautiously down the stairs, Candace still could hear no signs of awake family members. She hurried through the kitchen to the back door, thinking it best to go out where no one could see her from the street – not that anyone would be awake at this time of night anyway. And Candace was about to pull open the door and walk outside when she stopped and realized what she was doing.

_What is wrong with me?_ Candace thought. _I'm breaking my parents' rules and leaving the house in the middle of the night. Why would I do a thing like that?_

_ Well, to see Jeremy, of course, _a voice spoke in her mind.

_Well, true…_ Candace thought, _but my parents…_

_Oh, come on, no one will know, _the voice interrupted. _Besides, you haven't seen Jeremy in such a long time. It's totally worth it!_

_ Well, I could always wait until morning…_ Candace thought. She stood there for a moment, torn inside, until she realized she couldn't resist. Candace pulled open the back door, shut it softly behind her, and tiptoed through the backyard in the direction of Jeremy's house.

_I only hope I can wake him up, _Candace thought as she walked with trepidation. _I can't imagine anyone would be awake at this hour…_

.

"I can't believe I'm actually awake at this hour," Doofenshmirtz whined.

The evil scientist turned his screwdriver weakly, but dropped it on the ground as he collapsed on top of his machine.

"I really should've waited until the morning to work on this…" Doofenshmirtz said aloud. "If only Perry the Platypus were here to keep me company…"

Half expecting the platypus to fly out of nowhere at him, the scientist quickly whirled around, but saw no one. Sighing, he picked his screwdriver back up and continued working on the inator.

"I've been working on my inator all the live long night…"

Doofenshmirtz suddenly felt something crash into the back of his head, sending him flying forward into the machine. Collapsing on the ground, Doofenshmirtz quickly turned his head to see a teal-colored creature standing behind him on its hind legs.

"A platypus?" the scientist asked, confused.

The platypus nearly hit himself in annoyance, but grabbing his hat that had fallen off next to him, placed it on his head.

"Perry the Platypus?" Doofenshmirtz cried. "You know, you completely missed your cue just now…"

Agent P interrupted the scientist by throwing a punch at his face.

"Ow!" Doofenshmirtz said, massaging his cheek. But before the platypus could wind his arm up again, the scientist held up his hand.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, Perry the Platypus," Doofenshmirtz interrupted. Stopping in mid-punch, Perry looked at the evil scientist quizzically.

"It's the middle of the night," Doofenshmirtz continued. "I'm tired, you're tired – why don't we just take a break?"

Perry dropped his hands. Was Doofenshmirtz serious?

"Of course I'm serious!" Doofenshmirtz said, answering the platypus's unspoken question. "You just go home, Perry the Platypus, and I promise I'll go to bed too. We can pick things back up in the morning."

Perry looked over the evil scientist's expression, but there was nothing to suggest that he was lying. Figuring Doofenshrmitz probably was just as tired as he was, and remembering his comfy bed back at the Flynn-Fletcher home, Perry nodded and tipped his hat to his nemesis. Agent P turned around and began to walk towards the door, when out of nowhere he saw bars fly up around him and he found himself trapped inside a cage – again.

"Ha!" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed. "I fooled you again, Perry the Platypus! That's twice now! Gosh, it's like I've reached a new level of eviltude…"

Perry chattered angrily, now tired _and _upset.

"See, I told you cages were the way to go, Perry the Platypus," Doofenshmirtz commented as Perry futilely shook the bars of his trap. "And this time it's platy-proof! Industrial-strength steel, no pick-able locks – not even hydrochloric acid can break this baby! Plus, I got rid of my entire stash of that stuff anyway – Norm might've let you have some or something, which would not have ended well…you know, for me."

Perry rolled his eyes as usual and sat back in his cage. As much as he didn't like to admit it to himself, his nemesis was right: he was going to be stuck here for a while. Well, as long as Doofenshmirtz didn't tell him an annoying backstory, things would be fine.

"So, Perry the Platypus, I bet you're wondering what I'm working on, aren't you?"

Perry smacked himself for jinxing it.

"Introducing my Duplicator-inator 3!" the scientist said, presenting his machine to the platypus. "You remember the Duplicator-inator 2, don't you? Well, this is the sequel!"

Perry did not look amused.

"Yeah, you're probably wondering what happened to the first one too, aren't you?" Doofenshmirtz continued. "Well, let's just say it involved a chicken, several lawn chairs, and my unfriendly neighbor in 2B…yeah, not a fun story to tell there."

With Doofenshmirtz, Perry couldn't imagine it would be.

"Anyway," Doofenshmirtz went on, "as I was telling my daughter Vanessa earlier tonight – you remember her, don't you, Perry the Platypus? – I've made some modifications to my earlier designs, and this time around it's much better! Which brings me to the purpose of today's inator: to get some new assistants!"

"I can still hear you," came Norm's robotic voice from another room.

"Be quiet, you bucket of bolts!" Doofenshmirtz called back. "What are you doing awake, anyway?" Whispering to Perry, the evil scientist added, "He's been really off-kilter lately, pay no attention to him."

"As I was saying," Doofenshmirtz continued, back in his normal tone, "I was talking with Vanessa earlier today after you, you know, thwarted me, and she was telling me all about these little friends of hers. They're supposed to be these brothers who are great inventors, who build all sorts of amazing things…they sound just like little versions of me, don't they?"

Perry rolled his eyes again, knowing they sounded nothing like his nemesis. But inside, he was thinking quickly. He did know two brothers that sounded just like this…but of course, there was no way Doofenshmirtz could know his owners…

"If only I could remember what their names were…" the evil scientist went on. "Something with a P and an F...Padre and Ferris…no, Peniculus and Figaro…no, what was it…?"

Perry gulped. This didn't sound good.

"Pinny and Ferv! That was it!"

Perry sighed with relief.

"No, no, wait…that wasn't it either…Phish – Phil – Phin…that's it! Yes! Phineas! Phineas and Ferb! Ha! Knew I'd get there eventually."

Perry's jaw dropped, and he immediately started rattling the bars of his cage, trying to break it open. There was no way he was going to let his nemesis get anywhere near his owners.

"Perry the Platypus, stop making so much noise!" Doofenshmirtz said. "You'll wake Vanessa…and well, let's just say she needs her beauty sleep. Besides, I told you, this cage is completely platy-proof. There's no way you're getting out of this one!"

Frustrated, Perry stepped back from the bars. What was Doofenshmirtz planning to do with Phineas and Ferb anyway?

"Anyhoo, I was telling you about my evil plan," the scientist went on. "See, since these boys are so great at making inventions, I figured they'd make perfect assistants for helping me with my evil schemes. But since Vanessa told me they aren't exactly, you know, evil, I figured the next best thing would be to make duplicates of them! With a little evil modification, of course. And then, with their help, I will be able to finally take over the Tri-State Area!"

Perry was horrorstruck. Thinking quickly, Perry leaned as far as he could through the bars of the cage, trying to grab the screwdriver Doofenshmirtz had left on the ground. Spotting him, the evil scientist quickly pushed the platypus back.

"Oh no, you don't!" Doofenshmirtz said, holding Agent P with his hands. Calling to the room next door, he added, "Hey, Norm, come out here and help me with Perry the Platypus!"

"I thought I wasn't your assistant anymore," came Norm's reply.

"No, only _after _I make duplicates of the boys. Until then you've still got to do my bidding. Now come here and throw Perry the Platypus in a closet or something."

After a moment, Norm crashed through a door to the lair. He was wearing a frown that did not suit him, and walked very slowly as he approached the trapped platypus. Picking Perry's cage up, Norm walked over to a nearby door marked "Closet", opened it, and tossed the platypus inside before shutting and locking the door. Perry's head swam from the landing, and he could see nothing in the dark, tiny room. Reaching through the bars of his cage, he couldn't feel any supplies that would help him escape either. All he could do was listen helplessly as Doofenshmirtz continued to speak outside the door.

"And that takes care of that," the evil scientist said. "Now I've just got to make some last minute adjustments to my de-Ethicator-inator addition to my Duplicator-inator 3, and then my scheme will be all set! So Norm, go make me some coffee!"

"Why must I be so alone?" Norm answered, and Perry heard the robot walk off towards the kitchen. Then came the sounds of screwdrivers turning as Doofenshmirtz went back to work on his inator.

"I've been working on my inator all the live long day…"

Perry was terrified. He had to find a way out of this trap, or he could risk the safety of his owners – and the entire Tri-State Area for that matter. The only question was…how?

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, how? Will Perry be able to stop Doof in time? What will happen to Candace and Jeremy? Stay tuned for the next chapter...which I promise I'll have up sooner than this last one, really! Thanks for reading, and please feel free to review!<strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone! I told you I'd get this chapter up faster than the last one. :) And good news, I've made a lot of progress on the story over the past few days, so I should be able to keep on track with posting, at least for a little while. Moving on, thanks to everyone who read the last chapter, and of course special thanks to my reviewers: WordNerb93, iheartphinabella05, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan. You guys are the greatest! Also, a couple of things: 1) Sorry for the repeat at the beginning of the last chapter there, I copy-and-pasted more than I meant to, and 2) I also realized that if Candace is going to be a senior in the fall, then she'd probably be seventeen, not eighteen. Whoops. Oh well, let's just say she was held back a grade at some point or something. Anyway, ****without further ado (except to say that I don't own Phineas and Ferb): Chapter 9!**

* * *

><p>Phineas lay awake in his bed. He had been sleeping off and on all night, and after tossing and turning for several hours, had just given up on trying to get a good night's sleep. He was too busy thinking about Isabella…<p>

_Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I? Shouldn't I?_

Phineas's mind kept going back and forth as he stared at the ceiling.

_Ugh!_ he thought to himself, frustrated. _Why does this have to be so hard? Why are you supposed to ask someone out if you like them anyway? Who made up that rule…?_

Phineas sighed, then looked at the clock on his bedside table. It was long past midnight. And Phineas knew he wouldn't be getting to sleep any time soon if his mind kept going like this…

Phineas glanced at the picture frames that were next to his clock. One was of a picture of his family, the other of his friends. Phineas reached over, picked up the picture of his friends, and stared at it for a moment. He remembered the day they had taken that picture: they had just finished building a giant camera in the backyard, and this was the first photo they were supposed to take with it. Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Baljeet had posed nicely in front of the fence in their backyard, smiling contently, while Buford climbed the ladder next to the camera so he could press the button on the top. But after Buford had pressed the timer, he jumped off the front of camera and landed in a mud pile left over from some rain the night before, causing everyone to get covered in mud. Phineas was laughing so hard that he collapsed on Isabella, who was able to hold him up as she laughed herself, just in time for the photo to be shot. Irving had even popped his head over the fence to be captured with the others. Phineas smiled at the memory of it. Even when she was covered in mud, Isabella was still beautiful.

Phineas sighed again as he put the picture frame back. If only Isabella could feel the same way about him…

"Oh, Perry," Phineas said out loud, even though he knew his pet platypus was probably asleep and couldn't hear him. "What should I do?"

Phineas glanced over at the platypus's bed on the floor, but did a double-take when he realized that strangely, it wasn't there.

"Perry?" Phineas rubbed his eyes, making sure he actually was awake. "Perry, where'd you go?"

Phineas got out of bed and looked around the room, but found no sign of the platypus.

_Maybe he left the room and I didn't notice, _Phineas thought. He pulled open his bedroom door and peeked in the hallway, but again saw nothing…except for the door to Candace's room, which was ajar. Tiptoeing across the hall and making sure not to wake his snoring parents, Phineas peered around Candace's door, and did another double-take when he saw that Candace's bed was empty.

_Candace is gone too?_ Phineas thought, beginning to get worried. _This can't be right…_

Phineas hurried down the stairs as quietly as he could, checked in all the rooms, and even looked out into the backyard. But Perry and Candace were nowhere to be found. Seriously worried now, Phineas ran back upstairs into his room and jumped onto his brother's bed.

"Ferb!" Phineas whispered, shaking his brother. "Ferb, wake up!"

The green-haired boy turned over sleepily and rubbed his eyes, before giving Phineas a look that did not express content with being awake.

"Ferb, Candace and Perry have disappeared!" Phineas whispered hurriedly. "They're not in the house!"

Ferb rubbed his eyes again, looking very confused.

"No, look, come see for yourself!" Phineas said, and pulled his sleepy brother out of bed. He quickly gestured to the empty spot where Perry's bed should have been, and then pulled Ferb down the hall and showed him Candace's empty bed.

"See, they're not there!" Phineas whispered to Ferb, still trying not to wake his parents even in his fear. "What do we do?"

Ferb was stunned: he wasn't sure how to react. The only thing he knew was that they had to tell someone. He was about to walk over to their parents' room when Phineas stopped him.

"No, no, Ferb, we can't wake Mom and Dad!" Phineas warned.

Ferb shot him back a quizzical look.

"Because they have that big antique convention tomorrow!" Phineas answered. "What if we wake them up and nothing's really happened? You know how upset they can get…"

Ferb frowned, and was about to head for their parents' room again, but Phineas interrupted him.

"Look, we don't have a lot of time," Phineas said, trying to keep his voice down. "We can check up and down Maple Drive, and if we don't see them, we can come back and wake up Mom and Dad."

Ferb looked at Phineas, knowing this probably wasn't the right course of action.

"Please, Ferb," Phineas pleaded, "let's just check ourselves first. Please? I promise if we can't find them, we'll come right back. I…just want to make sure for myself, okay?"

Ferb looked at his brother's pleading expression, then sighed. He knew that Phineas was right about one thing: they didn't have a lot of time. And the more time they spent arguing about this, the more time could be wasted if something bad really had happened to Candace and Perry. Taking a deep breath, he nodded slowly.

"Thanks, Ferb," Phineas breathed in relief. "Come on, let's hurry."

The brothers slipped down the hallway and tiptoed downstairs. They opened up the back door silently, and making sure not to lock themselves out, left the door slightly open before taking off through the backyard.

_Please let them be okay, please let them be okay, _Phineas thought over and over again as they ran through the dark. Because if they weren't okay, Phineas didn't know how he'd live with himself…

.

"Finished! Finally!" Doofenshmirtz said, standing back from his invention and looking proudly at it. "Sheesh, that took a while."

The evil scientist yawned loudly, then grabbed his coffee cup and took another swig.

"Just in time, too," Doofenshmirtz added, "I was about to pass out there." Looking over at the nearby closet, he called out, "You hear that, Perry the Platypus? I'm all finished! And for once, you're unable to thwart me! What do you think of that?"

"Gnananana!" Perry chattered angrily through the door. He was still looking for some way to get out of his "platy-proof" cage, but in the darkness of the closet he couldn't see anything, much less devise a plan of escape. But that was the only thing on his mind now: he had to stop his nemesis before he got to Phineas and Ferb.

Doofenshmirtz cackled his best evil laugh as he took another sip of coffee, but ended up choking on it and spilling all the coffee over himself.

"Geez, just when you think you're reaching yet another level of eviltude," Doofenshmirtz said, grabbing a towel and cleaning himself off. Calling to the kitchen, he yelled, "Hey Norm, come load the Duplicator-inator 3 onto the hover pad."

The robot appeared slowly from the kitchen and walked sadly over to the inator.

"Chop, chop, Norm! We haven't got all night!" Doofenshmirtz called as Norm picked up the machine and walked it over to the hover pad. As Norm set the invention down, Doofenshmirtz hurried over and stood at the hover pad controls.

"CCFN, Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz called over to the closet. "That stands for Ciao Ciao For Now! I've been working on my Italian."

Perry rolled his eyes even in the dark.

"Anyway, I'm off to find those two kids," Doofenshmirtz went on. "Yeah, I know it's a slim chance that they're going to be out at this time of night since, you know, they're kids, but there's still a chance! So, see ya when I get back – and you better still be trapped, by the way, don't let Norm let you out or anything."

And with that, Doofenshmirtz started up the hover pad and took off into the night sky. Perry remained trapped in his cage in the closet, but hearing Doofenshmirtz's last statement, the platypus had come up with an idea. Taking off his hat, Perry grabbed the pad of paper and pen that he normally kept hidden there, and began to write furiously. When he finished, he stuck his note through the bars of the cage and carefully slid it under the closet door. Perry could only hope this plan would work – and that it would work in time. Because if it didn't…he didn't know how he'd be able to live with himself.

* * *

><p><strong>Perry's got a plan then...let's see if it works. Thanks for reading, all! And please feel free to drop a review!<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone! Gonna keep things short today...but as always, I'd like to thank everyone who read, and especially my faithful reviewers: Shiningheart of ThunderClan, iheartphinabella05, WordNerb93, and TheCartoonFanatic01! Of course, I do not own Phineas and Ferb. And now: Chapter 10!**

* * *

><p>"Candace? Perry? Are you out here?"<p>

Phineas called out into the night as he and Ferb hurried down the street, but heard no reply.

"Perry? Candace?" Phineas called a little louder, but still silence answered him. Phineas stopped and turned to his brother, fear etched into the redhead's expression.

"I'm getting really worried," Phineas said. "What if we can't find them? What if they're…?"

Phineas bit his lip, not wanting to think about what he could put at the end of that sentence. Ferb put his arm around his brother and gave him a comforting look. Ferb wasn't sure if Candace and Perry were okay either, but he knew they had to keep looking. Urging Phineas along, Ferb continued to walk his brother forward. Wherever their family members were, Ferb could only hope they were all right…

.

"You know, I probably should've asked Vanessa where those two lived before I went out here," Doofenshmirtz said, poring over a map of the Tri-State Area as he flew his hovercraft aimlessly through the air. "That probably would've been helpful…"

Doofenshmirtz had looked all over downtown Danville by this time, only stopping twice: once to save the Duplicator-inator 3 from falling off the back of the hover pad, and the second time to avoid hitting a dump truck driven by a none-too-happy driver. The evil scientist's coffee burst was beginning to wear off again, and he was afraid he'd fall asleep before he'd find any sign of the boys.

"Just keep flying, just keep flying," Doofenshmirtz hummed to himself as he sailed over the city buildings. Eventually, the scientist reached the downtown limits, and stopped as he pulled into the suburbs.

"Okay, that's probably enough evil searching for tonight," Doofenshmirtz yawned to himself. "You know, it's hard to find two little kids in the middle of the night, especially when they're probably not exactly awake and out and about…"

The evil scientist was about to turn his hover pad around, when he spotted something further down on the street beneath him. Squinting, Doofenshmirtz saw that it was two kids walking down the street…and one of them had green hair.

"Well, what do you know, it's them!" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed excitedly, remembering Ferb's telltale green hairdo. "And they're awake and up and about in the middle of the night! What are the odds on that, seriously?"

Doofenshmirtz quickly pointed the hover pad in the boys' direction and zoomed forward.

"It's working, it's working!" Doofenshmirtz sang gleefully to himself.

.

Norm soared at high speed through the midnight air, narrowly missing buildings as he went. And Agent P was right behind him, hanging for dear life on his back.

Perry thought back to the note he had written Norm when he was trapped in Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc. The platypus had been able to convince the robot that if he were to help stop Doofenshmirtz, Norm might be able to stay as the scientist's assistant. So, Norm had let the platypus out of the closet and cage, and allowed him to grab onto his back as they took off with the robot's rockets after the evil scientist.

Perry held his breath as they flew through the air, hoping that everything was all right. They were now soaring towards the edge of downtown, and heading quickly for the suburbs. Perry could only hope he and Norm would reach Doofenshmirtz before the evil scientist could find Phineas and Ferb…

.

Doofenshmirtz pulled the hover pad to a quick stop a few yards behind the boys, and hovered several feet above their heads. He was afraid for a moment that the boys were going to notice him and run away, but they seemed too preoccupied with something else to pay much attention to what was above their heads. The scientist hurried back to the controls of the Duplicator-inator 3 and quickly began to power it on.

"Almost there!" he sang gleefully to himself.

.

Norm shot down Maple Drive as Perry looked out for Doofenshmirtz. Searching either side of the street, Agent P almost forgot to look in front of him, until he saw Doofenshmirtz's hover pad straight ahead, situated right above Phineas and Ferb. Doofenshmirtz was standing at the controls of the Duplicator-inator 3, beginning to aim it at the boys. Perry grabbed tighter onto Norm's back: it was now or never.

.

"Gotta turn the de-Ethicator-inator on," Doofenshmirtz said as he pressed a button, then grinned evilly. "And now, time for the money..."

.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Norm was inches away from hitting the hover pad. Perry watched in horror as Doofenshmirtz's hand began to lower towards the fire button. Looking down at the ground, Perry saw his owners, who seemed almost oblivious to what was going on above them…until Phineas began to turn around.

Out of instinct, Agent P grabbed a hold of Norm's back and immediately pulled the robot upwards, following a habit he had built up for years to keep the boys from learning about his secret agent identity. Time seemed to move even slower as Perry pulled Norm out of the way of the hover pad, narrowly missing Doofenshmirtz's invention, and sending himself and the robot spiraling away from the evil scientist. And Perry was powerless to interfere as Doofenshmirtz slammed down the fire button, and a green light appeared on the nozzle of the machine, firing straight at Phineas and Ferb.

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger! But I'll post the next chapter soon, I promise! I'm pretty far ahead on writing now, so I should be able to keep up for a while. And of course, please don't hesitate to drop a review!<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi everyone! Hope everyone enjoyed that cliffhanger on the last chapter...but now we're back! I'd of course like to thank everyone who read, but especially my wonderful reviewers: NattyMc, 8Tickles, WordNerb93, iheartphinabella05, TheCartoonFanatic01, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan! I think this is the first time all of you consistent reviewers have reviewed the same chapter, which is so great! I'm so glad you guys are into this. :) Anyway, I won't keep you further: I don't own Phineas and Ferb, and may I now present Chapter 11!**

* * *

><p>Perry woke up dazed, his head swimming violently. Pulling himself to his feet, he rubbed his eyes and steadied himself against the nearest object. And as his vision came back into view, Perry realized the object was Norm.<p>

After Perry had pulled the robot away from the hover pad, Norm had spun off course and crashed into the side of the road. The robot was now severely damaged, and was talking incessantly with his original programmed phrases.

"Who's up for some bowling? This cream sauce is just lovely. Does anyone know where the restroom is?"

But despite all the noise that Norm was making, no one seemed to notice – not even Doofenshmirtz, who was standing just a few feet away, his back turned to Perry.

Doofenshmirtz had descended from his hover pad and was standing in front of something that Perry couldn't see. But he was talking very excitedly at it.

"It worked! It worked!" Doofenshmirtz cried. "I can't believe it actually worked! Evil genius points for me!"

Doofenshmirtz then stood aside, causing Perry to jump back in shocked horror. His owners had collapsed on the ground in front of the evil scientist and appeared to be unconscious from the blast. But that wasn't the worst of it: standing next to Doofenshmirtz, clean and well-awake, were two exact replicas of Phineas and Ferb, each with a sinister grin on his face.

Perry stood in shock as Doofenshmirtz danced around his duplicates, incredibly elated.

"Ooh, I'm so excited!" Doofenshmirtz said happily. "You two are going to be the best evil servants – I mean, assistants – ever! So much better than Norm!"

"Would you care for some coffee?" Norm called erratically from the ground.

"Whatever we can do, sir," the Phineas duplicate spoke. Agent P was startled to hear these words come from the mouth of Phineas…but Perry had to remember, it wasn't Phineas. It was his duplicate…an evil duplicate…

"We're happy to serve your cause," the Ferb duplicate added, causing Perry to be startled even more in hearing Ferb speak. Evidently, the evil Ferb had very different speech patterns than the original boy.

"Oh, yay!" Doofenshmirtz cried gleefully. Turning back towards the hover pad and leaving the unconscious Phineas and Ferb on the ground, the evil scientist began to speak very quickly. "You two are going to love my evil lair, I just got it outfitted with the latest gadgets. Of course, it didn't help that it got destroyed yesterday afternoon because of…Perry the Platypus?"

Perry jumped when he realized he had been standing in the same spot, now in clear view of Doofenshmirtz. Thinking quickly, Agent P began to run away from the scientist.

"Wait, wait, how did you escape?" Doofenshmirtz called as the platypus ran, then grimaced. Turning to the duplicate of Phineas, he said quickly, "Okay, first assignment: capture that platypus!"

"Right on it, sir," the Phineas duplicate grinned evilly, and took off after Perry.

Agent P hurried as fast as he could away from Phineas. All he needed to do was get back home, then he might be able to get into his lair and contact the OWCA for help…

But the Phineas duplicate was too fast. Before he knew what had happened, Perry was being hoisted into the air and carried back towards Doofenshmirtz. Perry attempted to shake Phineas loose, but the duplicate was too strong. So Doofenshmirtz was grinning happily as Phineas approached, holding the platypus captive.

"Well, well, well, Perry the Platypus," Doofenshmirtz said, "thought you could stop me, eh? Well, it's too late now! I've got my new assistants, so with their help, there's nothing you can do to keep me from taking over the Tri-State Area! As long as I can, you know, come up with a way of doing that…but I'm sure I'll find something eventually."

Doofenshmirtz then turned to the Ferb duplicate. "That reminds me, second assignment: when we get back, do me a favor and make a better platy-proof trap for Perry the Platypus here. Don't want him escaping again…"

"As you wish, sir," Ferb grinned, and began to walk back towards the hover pad. Phineas followed close behind, holding the struggling Perry tightly in his arms. Doofenshmirtz, seeing the success of his scheme, did another quick dance of joy around the area.

"What a pretty mantelpiece," came Norm's voice suddenly from behind the evil scientist, causing Doofenshmirtz to jump and fall over.

"Geez, and could somebody get Norm out of the ground too?" Doofenshmirtz said as he pulled himself up. "I want to fix him so I can yell at him later."

.

"Jeremy! Jeremy!"

Candace tossed a pebble at the window above her, but no one came to it.

"Jeremy!" she whispered as loudly as she could. "It's me, Candace! Open your window!"

But the room above remained silent. Candace glanced over at the house's driveway, and saw that there was indeed a car there.

_He's gotta be home, then, _Candace thought. Picking up another pebble, she tossed it at the window again.

"Jeremy!"

Candace waited a few moments, but still no one answered. Getting frustrated, she picked up a bigger rock and called again.

"Jeremy! Come to the window!"

Seeing no one yet again, Candace pulled her arm back, then launched the rock hard into the window.

SMASH!

"Oh, shoot," Candace murmured.

"What's going on?" came a voice from inside the room above suddenly. And a moment later, someone pulled open the window and stuck their head through before Candace could move out of the way. But it wasn't who Candace was expecting…

"Mr. Johnson!" Candace yelled, shocked. "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize that was your…I mean, I…"

"Candace Flynn, is that you?" Jeremy's father called down to below. "What are you doing?"  
>"I…um, I…gotta go!" Candace blurted out, and took off in the other direction.<p>

"Candace, come back here!" Mr. Johnson called, but the girl ignored his cry as she hurried down the street. Candace continued to run until she was about a block away, and finally stopped to catch her breath.

"That…was…close…" Candace panted. Bending down and taking a few deep breaths, Candace turned towards the street. She was about to walk back home, when she saw what was in front of her and stopped short, shocked. Lying on the ground in front of her, unconscious, were her brothers.

Candace pinched herself to make sure she was really awake, then hurriedly leaned down and felt her brother's bodies to make sure they were actually there. Realizing that what she was seeing was real, Candace began to freak out.

"Phineas! Ferb! Wake up!" Candace yelled, shaking their bodies. "Wake up!"

Phineas began to stir slightly, and Candace breathed a sigh of relief as he and Ferb slowly awoke.

"Candace?" Phineas said, rubbing his eyes. "Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," Candace answered, relieved. "Are you all right? What's going on?"

"Ferb and I saw that you were gone and we came looking for you," Phineas said, slowly sitting up. Ferb did the same next to him.

"Why would you do a thing like that?" Candace spoke. "I just went to go see Jeremy."

"In the middle of the night?" Phineas asked. "Well, I guess we should've thought of that…"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it," Candace replied remorsefully. "I just wanted…but what happened to you two anyway? Why were you knocked out?"

"I…don't remember," Phineas answered, looking at Ferb, who nodded in agreement. "All I can remember is that we were walking down the street, and then I thought I heard something behind me, so I turned around…"

"And then what?" Candace asked.

"I don't remember," Phineas repeated. "It's all a blank."

Candace thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I bet you were so tired that you fell asleep from exhaustion. But you're okay now, right? And there's nothing we can do about it here, so why don't we head back home?"  
>Phineas and Ferb nodded, and Candace helped pull them to their feet. After stumbling a little with their first few steps, the brothers eventually regained their balance and were able to walk the rest of the way. The siblings talked a little as they headed back home, so they almost didn't notice as the sun slowly began to rise above their heads. And they had nearly forgotten what time it was when they arrived on their front lawn, and looked up at the front door.<p>

"Uh oh," Candace gulped.

Linda and Lawrence Flynn-Fletcher were standing in the doorway, with arms crossed, feet tapping, and particularly unhappy looks on their faces.

"Busted," Ferb whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, yes they are. Thanks for reading everyone! And if you're so inclined, please drop a review as well!<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey everyone! Happy Passover and early Easter! And any other holidays that are going on right now that I'm unaware of! Hope everyone's enjoying the story, which it sounds like people are, or at least according to my wonderful reviewers! Special thanks to NattyMc, iheartphinabella05, WordNerb93, DarthEdocsil, TheCartoonFanatic01, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan. You guys always make my day! I also just realized that with this chapter, I've surpassed my first fanfic in length, and this story's nowhere near done...so exciting! Anyway, you guys don't want to read me blabbering on, so I'll just add that I do not own Phineas and Ferb, and get on with Chapter 12!**

* * *

><p>"What on Earth do you think you were doing? You could have been kidnapped! Or murdered! Or worse! Of all the irresponsible things…"<br>Candace, Phineas, and Ferb were cramped together on the couch in their living room, as Linda was pacing angrily and yelling in front of them. Lawrence stood by, and while he certainly looked disappointed, perhaps he thought that his wife's reaction was a little extreme.

"…I simply can't believe it! What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Linda looked angrily at the three siblings, who instinctively leaned back. Candace sighed, and was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Candace said, bowing her head, "it was my fault. I went out in the middle of the night to talk to Jeremy…"

"You _what_?"

"…and then Phineas and Ferb left to try and find me. It's my fault."

"Candace, I'm completely disappointed in you!" Linda said. "You know the rules about our curfew! Just because you're eighteen now doesn't mean that you can stop following our family's rules! When you live under our roof, our rules go!"

Candace sighed again. "I know, I'm sorry."

"And you should also know," Linda went on, "that I received a call from Mr. Johnson early this morning, and he'd like to have a talk with you about a certain _window_ in his house."

Candace blushed, unable to stop herself.

"Candace Flynn, you are grounded," Linda finished. "Go up to your room – we'll continue this conversation later."

Candace dropped her head, stood up slowly, and walked towards the stairs. Phineas and Ferb stood up as well and were about to follow her, when Linda interrupted them.

"Oh no, you two, sit back down," Linda said. "I'm not done with you yet."

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other, then slowly sat back down.

"Now, why didn't you boys come tell us when you saw that Candace wasn't in her room?" Linda continued.

"And Perry," Ferb added quietly.

"What?" Linda said.

"Perry's missing too," Phineas answered. "We were worried when we couldn't find them, so we decided to go looking for them. And we still don't know where Perry is."

"Phineas," Linda replied, "Perry probably went outside when Candace left the house, and she just didn't notice. He's probably wandering somewhere around the neighborhood, doing whatever he does when you say he disappears all day. He'll probably be back soon."

"Okay then, that's a relief," Phineas said, and he and Ferb started to get up again.

"Uh uh, sit down!" Linda ordered, and the brothers dropped to the couch once more.

"You boys still should've said something to us when you saw they were missing," Linda said.

"But we were worried about your antique convention today," Phineas protested as Ferb nodded. "We didn't want to wake you up…"

"Phineas," Lawrence spoke up, entering the conversation for the first time, "if Candace and Perry really were in trouble, then getting a few extra hours of sleep wouldn't have mattered to us. What if you'd left and then something had happened to you as well? Then where would we be?"

Phineas looked at Ferb, and the two silently bowed their heads.

"We're sorry," Phineas admitted. "It won't happen again."

"Thank you, boys," Linda said. "Now go upstairs, you're grounded too."

"Wait, what?" Phineas said, confused. "But we were just trying…"

"And you disobeyed our rules in doing so," Linda interrupted. "I'm sorry, boys, that's our final decision."

Phineas and Ferb gave a pleading look to Lawrence, who just shook his head.

"Sorry, you two, but I think your mother's right," Lawrence said. "Now, head upstairs, we'll let you know when we're leaving for the convention."

Phineas sighed, and he and Ferb slowly got up and walked to the stairs. As they were heading up, Phineas looked sadly at Ferb.

"Ferb, I'm sorry I got us into this mess," Phineas said. "This never would've happened if I'd just listened to you in the first place. I didn't mean for us to get into trouble…"

Ferb lifted his hand to stop his brother and just shook his head. He continued walking upstairs, but Phineas only felt guiltier.

_Why do I always get us into these messes? _Phineas thought as he and Ferb entered their room and shut the door. Phineas sighed as he looked over at the empty spot where Perry's bed should have been.

_Oh, Perry, _Phineas thought as he lay down on his bed. _Where are you?_

.

"Ooh, it's so beautiful!"  
>Doofenshmirtz danced gleefully around the object that now sat in the middle of his lair. Phineas and Ferb stood nearby, looking on smugly, as Phineas continued to hold Agent P tightly captive in his arms.<p>

"Only one thing," Doofenshmirtz said, stopping. "What is it?"

"It's the trap you asked for, sir," Ferb spoke up, stepping over to the solid, metal box that was on the floor. "It's a state-of-the-art, fully-equipped, password-encrypted, indestructible platypus entrapment."

"Completely 'platy-proof'," Phineas added, slyly making fun of his employer. However, Doofenshmirtz took no notice.

"Ooh, that's perfect!" the scientist said. "But it just looks like a solid box."

"Oh, but it's so much more," Ferb continued. "This box is made with certified motion-recognition technology. Once it is placed in this trap, the platypus will have a radius of about 3 square feet in which it can move. But if it violates that boundary, it will be quickly zapped with hot lasers. And once the trap is closed, all you will have to do is choose a password, and it will be fully locked until you and you alone choose to open it. There will be no possible way for the platypus to escape."

"Awesome!" Doofenshmirtz squealed. "Hear that, Perry the Platypus?" he added, turning to his nemesis. "You're going to be trapped and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Perry chattered angrily at the evil scientist and again tried to struggle out of the duplicate's arms, but Phineas was too strong. The Ferb duplicate then lifted the lid of the box and motioned for Phineas to come over.

"Say, what happens if I put the wrong password into it?" Doofenshmirtz asked as the Phineas duplicate carried the struggling Perry over to the trap.

"You will have three tries to get the password right," Phineas answered as he placed Perry inside the box.

"And what happens if I get it wrong all three times?" Doofenshmirtz asked.

"The trap will self-destruct," Phineas answered simply, and he let go of the struggling Perry just in time for Ferb to shut the lid.

Perry was trapped in darkness. He tried to reach up and push the lid open, but saw a sudden flash of red light and felt his paw burn painfully. Perry pulled back and massaged it as he listened to what happened next.

"Here, type in a password," Perry heard Ferb say, and heard Doofenshmirtz approach the trap.

"Hmmm, let's see…" came the scientist's voice, and after a few moments Perry heard a few electronic beeps, and then a whirring sound as the trap locked. The platypus gulped.

"Great!" Doofenshmirtz called out, then spoke to the trap. "Sayonara, Perry the Platypus! See you when I've taken over the Tri-State Area!"

Perry heard three sets of footsteps begin to walk away from the trap.

"So, how are Norm's repairs going?" Doofenshmirtz asked.

"Very well, sir. Shall we show them to you?" came Phineas's voice.

Doofenshmirtz responded with another squeal of delight, and then a door slammed, and then there was silence. Perry felt like crying.

How could he have let this happen? He didn't even know if the real Phineas and Ferb were all right. What had they been doing out in the middle of the night anyway? And where did they think he was now?

Perry let all these questions flow over him, filling him with even greater despair. It didn't help that these duplicates were treating him cruelly, either. Perry had to keep reminding himself that these weren't the real Phineas and Ferb: these duplicates were evil. His real owners would never treat him that way, never. If only Perry could find a way out of this trap, then he could fix all this…

Perry reached up once more, but saw another flash and felt his paw burn again. Holding it tenderly, Perry felt a tear drip from his eye. If he couldn't do anything to stop Doofenshmirtz…then Perry just hoped there was someone who could.

* * *

><p><strong>Is there someone who can stop Doofenshmirtz? Well, you won't exactly find out next time, but you will eventually! So stay tuned... :) And feel free to review as well! Thanks for reading everyone!<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello everyone! Hope you all had a glorious holiday weekend - and are ready to get back to the story! Special thanks of course to my reviewers: WordNerb93, NattyMc, TheCartoonFanatic01, IzzieGS, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan! You guys are the greatest! I don't own Phineas and Ferb, but to make up for that, I now present to you: Chapter 13!**

* * *

><p>Phineas stared at the ceiling. He hadn't moved since he and Ferb had been sent up to their room earlier that morning. Ferb was now sitting silently on the other side of the room, reading a book, and Phineas got the sense he didn't want to be talked to at the moment. The redhead felt extremely guilty.<p>

_It's all my fault_, Phineas thought. _Why didn't I just listen to Ferb last night…?_

Phineas was so lost in thought that he almost didn't hear the knock on his door before his father poked his head in the room.

"We're headed off to the antique convention now, boys," Lawrence said. "You can leave your room to get some lunch, but your mother and I don't want you leaving the house. The same goes for Candace as well. Is that clear?"

Phineas and Ferb both nodded.

"All right then, we'll see you late tonight," Lawrence replied, and closed the door behind him. A few moments later, Phineas heard the car start, pull out of the driveway, and his parents were gone.

Phineas looked at his brother, who had gone back to reading his book. "Hey, Ferb," he said tentatively, "do you want to get some lunch?"

The green-haired boy shook his head without looking up. Phineas sighed, and then stood up himself. Leaving Ferb in the bedroom alone, Phineas went down the hallway and glanced into Candace's room. Candace was still in her pajamas, lying on her bed, holding her old Ducky Momo doll, and looking quite melancholy. Phineas decided it'd be best not to disturb her. So he was alone as he went downstairs, headed for the kitchen, and began to prepare a sandwich.

_I wonder what the others are up to today, _Phineas thought. _I wonder if Isabella's doing anything…_

Glancing out the window, he looked at the sun-filled, clear sky shining over the empty backyard. Phineas sighed: it just didn't seem right for the backyard to be empty on a beautiful day like this…

_Just think_, a voice in Phineas's head said, _on a day like today, you could be building new technologies, traversing the galaxy…spending time with Isabella…_

Phineas stared dreamily at the backyard, lost in his imagination. He could almost see Isabella walking into the backyard now, smiling at him, saying that old, familiar phrase…

"Whatcha doin'?"

Phineas jumped out of his daydream, and was startled to find the real Isabella grinning at him through the kitchen window. Phineas shook himself, then hurried over to the door and pulled it open.

"Hey, Isabella," Phineas said, poking his head outside. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi, Phineas," Isabella smiled, causing Phineas to blush involuntarily. "I just thought I'd check on you, see what was going on."

"Oh, you know, not much," Phineas said, shuffling his feet. "Um, but listen, Ferb and I aren't working on anything today. We're grounded: we can't leave the house."

"Yeah, I know, I heard about that," Isabella answered. "I'm really sorry…in fact, I probably shouldn't even be here – I'll get going…"

"No, no, it's okay!" Phineas said, almost a little too quickly. "I, um…I mean, my parents…uh, didn't exactly say we couldn't have anyone over. They just said we couldn't leave the house."

"Well, okay, if you're sure," Isabella replied, turning back around. "Is it okay if I make myself one of those sandwiches too, then? I haven't eaten anything all day and I'm starving."

"Oh yeah, sure," Phineas said, backing away from the door and letting Isabella come inside. Phineas watched dreamily again as she seemed to walk past him in slow motion, flipping her raven hair back as it glinted in the sun.

_Do it, _the voice said in Phineas's head, as Isabella grabbed a slice of bread and began making herself a sandwich. _Ask her out…_

_Wait, now? _Phineas thought back. _ But I'm not ready yet…_

_Sure you are, _the voice answered. _Think of all the cool things you've done over the years! This'll be a piece of cake compared to those._

_Ah, I don't know about that, _Phineas thought.

_Sure it will, _the voice said. _All you've got to do is just say it…_

"Hey, Isabella," Phineas spoke out loud, then nearly clapped his hand over his mouth when he realized what he had said. Isabella looked up from making her sandwich.

"Yes?" she asked, her eyes shining at Phineas. The boy gulped, and slowly began to speak.

"You see, I…I was wondering…" Phineas began to say, his mouth dry. "Um, I was wondering…"

"Wondering what?" Isabella asked. She looked back into Phineas's eyes, and for a moment Phineas thought that maybe she knew what he was trying to say…

"…I was wondering…how you knew that I was grounded!" Phineas blurted out. He wanted to hit himself immediately after he said it. Isabella appeared to look slightly crestfallen for a second, but it was gone before Phineas could tell if it had actually happened.

"Oh," Isabella replied. "Well, Irving posted on his blog this morning that you two had been grounded, pending further investigation. Actually I'm surprised he's not here, trying to get the whole story from you."

"Of course," Phineas said, laughing a little. "I should've guessed…but knowing Irving, he's probably just reviewing his video footage from last night rather than asking us directly."

"Oh, that's right," Isabella laughed. "I forgot he had cameras everywhere. He probably even tapes you when you're asleep…wow, that's really creepy."  
>All of a sudden, Phineas lit up, struck with an idea.<p>

"That's it!" Phineas exclaimed. "Irving's video footage!"

"What about it?" Isabella asked.

"If he was filming Ferb and I when we were asleep last night," Phineas went on, "then maybe he has footage of what happened to Perry!"

"Wait, something happened to Perry?" Isabella asked, confused.

"I'll explain in a minute," Phineas said quickly, instinctively grabbing Isabella's hand. "But first, we've gotta tell Ferb. Come on!"

Phineas pulled Isabella after him as he ran for the stairs. This day might actually turn out well after all…

.

"Dad, did you use all the shampoo in one of your inventions again?"

Vanessa walked down the hallway, tightly holding the towel wrapped around her middle. Using her free hand, she pushed open the door to her father's lair and walked in.

"Dad, for the last time…oh my gosh, Ferb!"

Vanessa immediately tried to cover herself more, shocked by who she saw in front of her. The green-headed boy was standing just a few feet away from her, sketching at a workbench. And a little ways behind him was his brother, carrying boxes of mechanical parts back and forth across the room. Vanessa's father was nowhere to be seen, and neither one seemed to have noticed the teenage girl enter the room.

"Ferb, what are you doing?" Vanessa asked.

Finally, the boy turned his head and glanced at Vanessa, before turning back to his sketches.

"I'm working – what does it look like?" Ferb said, not even looking at the towel-clad girl.

"What?" Vanessa said, taken slightly aback by Ferb's abrupt tone. "No, I meant, why are you here?"

"I'm helping your father with some of his inventions," the boy replied brusquely, continuing to sketch.

"Oh, um, okay," Vanessa said, confused. "Uh, but don't you and your brother have other things to build? You know, fun, non-evil things?"

"And don't you have other things to do besides ask stupid questions?" Ferb answered, not looking up.

Vanessa was stunned. Ferb had never talked like this to her before. "Well, fine, I guess I'll be going then," she said.

Ferb didn't even bother to reply as Vanessa turned around and left the room.

Vanessa was incredibly confused as she walked back down the hallway: she had never known Ferb to be rude like that, nor would she have expected him to just randomly come help her father work on his inventions.

_Maybe he's just having a bad day, _Vanessa thought. _That's probably it._

_ Yeah, but that still doesn't explain why he's helping Dad… _a voice in Vanessa's head said.

Vanessa shook her head. It was probably nothing…she hoped it was nothing. Vanessa returned to the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

_If Ferb is up to something, then that can't be good at all…_

* * *

><p><strong>No, no it can't. Thanks for reading everyone! Next chapter coming soon...and please don't hesitate to leave a review!<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi everyone! First of all, I'd like to apologize for the delay...and I feel doubly bad because this chapter isn't that long, either. So sorry! But things are coming together, so hopefully it'll be worth it. Regardless, I have so many reviewers to recognize! Special thanks to NattyMc, TheCartoonFanatic01, WordNerb93, Sierra, iheartphinabella05, Coolguyforever, and Dndchk! Your reviews always brighten my day. :) But I won't keep you any longer: I don't own Phineas and Ferb, and please enjoy Chapter 14!**

* * *

><p>The green-haired boy shook his head emphatically.<p>

"Oh, come on, Ferb, it's a great idea!" Phineas protested, standing in front of his brother, who was still sitting in his bedroom. "We'll even have Irving come over here, we won't have to leave the house that way."

Ferb shook his head again and gestured disapprovingly at Isabella, who was standing next to Phineas.

"No, it's okay that Isabella's here," Phineas replied. "We're following Mom and Dad's rules, right? They didn't _say_ that we couldn't have people come over."

Ferb shook his head one final time and lifted his book up into his face, beginning to read again.

"Listen, Ferb," Phineas said, "I know I got us into trouble, and I know that's what it looks like again, but this is important! If we look at Irving's video surveillance, we can figure out what happened to Perry last night!"

Ferb glanced up for a moment, but quickly turned back to his book.

"Please, Ferb," Phineas pleaded, "I promise once we figure it out, we'll be done. Isabella and Irving can go out and look for Perry, and we'll stay here, just like Mom and Dad asked."

"Yeah," Isabella added, "we'll put up posters and everything, you and Phineas won't have to worry about a thing."

"But we have to know what happened first," Phineas continued. "So can we please ask Irving to come over? Please?"

Ferb looked at his brother, whose eyes were wide and pleading. Ferb was tempted to say yes…but they had gotten into so much trouble this morning, and Ferb was pretty sure that their parents wouldn't see having Isabella and Irving over the same way that Phineas did…

_Then again_, Ferb thought, _it's for Perry, right? How much harm can be done…?_

So Ferb, although he was feeling slight misgivings, slowly nodded in reply to his brother.

"Yes! Thanks, bro!" Phineas exclaimed. "You won't regret this, I promise!"

Ferb sighed as Phineas pulled out his phone and began to dial quickly. He could only hope his brother's last statement was right…

.

"Ah, this is the life…"

Doofenshmirtz stretched back in the lounge chair that was on the deck of his lair. He lowered his sunglasses and took a sip of the lemonade that was sitting beside him.

"Ah, just right," he sighed. Glancing out over the balcony, Doofenshmirtz saw that the midday sun was glowing over downtown Danville, giving the city a pretty sheen.

"What a perfect day to be implementing my plan to take over the Tri-State Area," Doofenshmirtz commented to himself. "I wonder how the plan is coming, by the way…"

The evil scientist took another quick sip of lemonade, then raised his hand and began to snap his fingers.

"Hey, assistants! Over here!" Doofenshmirtz called into the lair.

The Phineas and Ferb duplicates quickly appeared beside the lounge chair. Phineas, who was carrying a pitcher of lemonade, began refilling the scientist's glass.

"What can we do for you, sir?" Ferb asked, grinning evilly.

"I was just wondering how Norm's repairs were going," Doofenshmirtz said.

"I'm glad you asked," Phineas answered, setting the pitcher down. "I had just finished before you called. Shall I power it up and send it over?"

"Ooh, yes, please do!" the evil scientist clapped excitedly. Phineas went inside, and returned a few moments later with the newly-cleaned and refurbished Norm following behind him.

"Hello, Dad!" Norm said happily. "What can I do for you?"

"I've got two things, Norm," Doofenshmirtz answered, taking off his sunglasses and turning to the robot. "One, I'm not your father. Two, you're fired."

"What?" Norm said, clearly shocked.

"Yep, you're fired," Doofenshmirtz smiled, putting his sunglasses back on and relaxing on the lounge chair again. "That's for letting Perry the Platypus escape the other day."

"But, but, but…" Norm tried to protest, but the evil scientist interrupted him.

"Sheesh, Norm, do you ever shut up?" Doofenshmirtz said. Turning to Phineas and Ferb, he added, "Can one of you two do me a favor and lock him in a closet so I don't have to listen to him? I'd ask you to build him a trap like the one you built Perry the Platypus, but I don't think he's smart enough to even get out of a closet on his own."

"Will do, sir," Ferb grinned, and then grabbed a hold of the robot and began to drag him back inside.

"But, but, but…" Norm continued to call out to the evil scientist, but Doofenshmirtz was no longer paying attention.

"Okay, other assistant," Doofenshmirtz said, facing Phineas. "Tell me how the plans on today's inator are going!"

"Excellent, sir," Phineas replied. "We have completed the preliminary blueprints and are ready to begin building. Would you care to take a look at them yourself?"

"No, no, no," the scientist brushed off, "I'm sure whatever you've come up with is brilliant! Just let me know when you're done – I've got a date to make at City Hall tonight, and I don't wanna miss it…if you know what I mean."

"Crystal clear, sir. Thank you," Phineas grinned. The duplicate turned and began to walk back into the lair as Doofenshmirtz went back to relaxing on the lounge chair. The scientist was no longer paying attention to his assistant, but had Doofenshmirtz looked back, he would have seen Phineas wink slyly across the room to his brother, who returned it with an evil grin. And Doofenshmirtz would have realized that while his plan seemed to have finished for now, his assistants' plan was just beginning…

* * *

><p><strong>The only question is: what does that plan entail? Hmmm...I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks for reading all! And please feel free to drop a review!<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi everybody! I want to start off by saying that I am so so so so so so so sorry that I haven't updated for 2 weeks - participating in the school musical, lots of various tests, writer's block, etc...but you don't want to hear about my life, I'm sure you'd rather read the story instead! Just know that I'm not finished with this, and I definitely will finish it, no matter how long it takes me. Anyway, I have to thank my fabulous reviewers, who always stick with me: iheartphinabella05, IzzieGS, WordNerb93, and Shiningheart of ThunderClan. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter as well. :) To disclaim, I don't own Phineas and Ferb, and may I now present: Chapter 15!**

* * *

><p>"Okay, just have to configure this…and we're good!"<p>

Irving stepped back from the computer in the Flynn-Fletcher study and gestured proudly to the screen. Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella all quickly gathered around.

"Hey, that's our room right now," Phineas said, pointing at the empty bedroom that was depicted on the screen.

"Exactly, we're streaming live," Irving replied.

"Where exactly is that camera?" Phineas asked.

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Irving giggled, then turned back to the computer as Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella looked at each other, blinking. But eventually they shrugged and turned back to the screen.

"We're going to need to go back to around the time Perry disappeared," Irving said, his fingers flying over the keyboard. "What time did you go to bed last night?"

"Hmmm, I think around 9:30," Phineas said, glancing at Ferb, who nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's see," Irving said, finishing typing and making some clicks on the mouse. "I'll rewind back to right about…there."

The others leaned in to watch the video closely. Phineas and Ferb were in their room, clambering into bed, while Perry could be seen lying on his small bed on the floor.

"Good night, Perry!" the digital Phineas called.

"You've got sound, too?" Isabella asked, baffled.

"And infared vision! Watch!" Irving replied.

The digital Phineas then flicked off the light switch, leaving the video in total darkness. Irving, however, quickly began typing again, and in a few moments, the bedroom was visible again, albeit in a red glow.

"Wow," Phineas said, flabbergasted.

"I know, right?" Irving exclaimed, mistaking Phineas's words for an outburst of excitement.

"Hey, Ferb?" the digital Phineas called from his bed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Oh, um, why don't we fast-forward?" the real Phineas jumped in quickly. He definitely did not want the others, especially Isabella, to hear what he had said in that conversation. "It was almost three o'clock when I realized Perry was missing."

"Moving forward," Irving agreed, and clicked on the mouse a few times. The video immediately began to fast-forward as the others closely followed what was happening onscreen. Phineas was watching Perry's bed intently, hoping to see the platypus get up. But all of a sudden, the bed seemed to disappear.

"Wait, hold on!" Phineas interrupted, and Irving paused the video. "Rewind just a little bit."  
>Irving began to move the video backwards, until just as suddenly as he had disappeared, Perry reappeared on the floor of the bedroom.<p>

"Stop now!" Phineas said quickly, and Irving obeyed. "Now, play it slowly."  
>Irving typed in a few more key commands, and the video began to play. Everyone stared at the video for a few moments as Perry slept in his bed. The platypus turned unconsciously, and after a moment passed, the floor seemed to suddenly flip over from beneath him, turning the bed over. Perry seemed to fall into a hole that was in the floor, and then he was gone, the hole replaced by a stretch of carpet that matched perfectly with the rest of the floor.<p>

"Wait, where'd he go?" Isabella asked. "It looks like he fell into a trapdoor or something."

"I don't know," Phineas replied, stunned. "Ferb, you didn't add a trapdoor into our room, did you?"

Ferb shook his head, and Phineas squinted back at the screen.

"I don't think Perry's still in there," Phineas said. "We would've heard him under the floor if he'd just fallen through into an air vent or something. That trapdoor must lead somewhere."

"But where?" Isabella asked. "And if you didn't build it, then who did?"

"I don't know…" Phineas wondered, stepping back from the computer. "Let's go check it out."

Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb stepped away from the computer and hurried to the bedroom across the hall, leaving Irving to look back through more footage. Ferb stooped low and tapped on the floor, listening closely.

"Can you hear anything…?" Phineas began to ask, but Ferb lifted his hand to shush him. Putting his ear to the floor, Ferb began tapping again, until suddenly he lifted his head and pointed to a spot of carpet.

"Is that it?" Isabella asked, and Ferb nodded before making a snipping motion with his hands as he felt for the edges of the trapdoor.

"Scissors," Phineas realized aloud, and hurried over to a box of supplies that was in the corner of the room. Taking the biggest pair he could find, Phineas brought them back to Ferb, who immediately began cutting deep into the carpet.

"Wait, are you sure it's a good idea to be cutting up your carpet?" Isabella asked as Ferb worked. "I mean, you are grounded, and you don't want to get into any more trouble…"

"Don't worry," Phineas assured her, "we'll fix it as soon as we're done."

As Phineas spoke these words, Ferb stopped cutting and set the scissors down. He then lifted out a clean square of carpet and revealed the wooden floor beneath, which had clear lines outlining a hole. Motioning to his brother, Phineas stooped down, followed by Isabella.

"Ready to see what's under here?" Phineas asked his friends. The two nodded, and Phineas began to reach down to push open the trapdoor…

.

"Agent P...Agent P, where are you?"

Major Monogram stared through the monitor, tapping his foot, but the platypus was nowhere to be seen: his lair was completely empty.

"Carl, you didn't mess up the memos again, did you?" Monogram asked grumpily.

"No, sir," Carl said, calling over from his computer, where he was working fervently. He had left the camera on a stand for the moment, seeing as Agent P hadn't appeared. "I checked them twice this time."

"Hmmmm," Monogram muttered, "where is he? And to think I got out of bed early after being up late last night for this."

"Well, he did seem pretty tired last night," Carl replied. "Maybe he's still asleep."

"Still asleep?" Monogram exclaimed. "Well, that's no way for a top agent to act! Carl, get him down here!"

"Right away, sir," the intern responded, and quickly hit a button on the control panel of his computer.

.

The trapdoor flipped over suddenly, causing Phineas and the others to jump back. The spot of floor had been replaced with a square of carpet identical to the one Ferb had just cut out.

"What just happened?" Isabella asked, shocked.

"I don't know," Phineas admitted, then glanced at Ferb, who also shrugged. "Maybe the trapdoor has a motion sensor."

"Or maybe someone was trying to stop us from seeing what's inside," Isabella offered.

Phineas thought gravely about that for a minute, then turned to his friends. "Well, if that's the case, then we've got to try opening it again."

Ferb nodded again, and Phineas turned to the trapdoor. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and began to push open the door once more…

"Phineas, Ferb! You've got to see this!"

The redhead halted his hands in mid-air.

"Come quick, this is important!" Irving called from the study.

"Can it wait a second, Irving?" Isabella interjected. "We're about to see where this trapdoor goes…"

"No, really! This is serious! You need to see this!"

Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella looked at one another and sighed, then got up and headed back to the study. Phineas only hoped that this wasn't about getting a signed photo of Ferb and himself or something…

.

"Carl, nothing's happening," Monogram muttered, tapping his foot. "Did you press the wrong button again?"

"No, sir, I checked this time," Carl responded. "I guess that just means he wasn't in his bed. Maybe he hasn't returned from his mission last night yet."

"Well, that's odd," Monogram commented thoughtfully. "Usually it doesn't take him this long to complete a mission. I wonder where he is…?"

.

Irving had an astounded look on his face and was pointing his finger at the computer screen.

"Look at this! I found this in my Maple Drive video footage archive! It's from late last night!"

Ignoring the fact that Irving obviously had even more cameras than they had expected, the others nodded for him to continue.

"It's unbelievable!" Irving went on. "You two…well, I'll let you see for yourself."

Irving hurriedly typed some key commands into the computer, and the video onscreen began to play. At first, it looked as if the footage was just of the empty, dimly-lit street at night, but suddenly, two figures emerged at the bottom of the screen.

"That's me and Ferb looking for Candace…" Phineas began to say, but Irving quickly shushed him.

"Wait, there's more!"

The digital Phineas and Ferb walked down the street, searching in front of them. Nothing happened for a few moments, until an object appeared behind the two teens without warning.

"Is that thing…hovering?" Isabella spoke, peering closer at the screen.

"And who's that guy on top of it?" Phineas asked, doing the same.

The man on the back of the object was partially hidden because of the poor light, but he appeared to be facing away from the camera – as well as wearing something that looked like a white lab coat. He was working eagerly on something in front of him that looked like a control box.

"What's he doing…?" Phineas began to say, but Irving shushed him again.

As the man worked with the controls, a green light began to glow from behind him, as if it were accumulating on the end of a tall pole. The light grew larger and larger, until suddenly it shot away from the pole in the form of a long beam of light. The beam shot at great speed, hitting the two digital brothers mercilessly and knocking them to the ground. Isabella, Phineas, and Ferb barely had time to react before something big and blue came flying out of nowhere and crashed into the camera, leaving the screen in static. Irving stopped the video.

"Well, Ferb," Phineas gulped, "I think we know why we passed out on the street last night."

* * *

><p><strong>The question is: what will they do now? And hopefully you won't have to wait as long this time to find out - I'm already hard at work on the next segment. Thanks for sticking with me, and please don't hesitate to leave a review!<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello everyone! Well, I want to start off by again apologizing for taking forever to update...more school, life, other stuff...always seems to get in the way, doesn't it? So thanks for bearing with me, I really appreciate it. I of course want to thank my faithful reviewers: NattyMc, iheartphinabella05, 8Tickles, and WordNerb93! You guys make this story worth writing. :) I do not own Phineas and Ferb, and without further ado may I present: Chapter 16!**

* * *

><p>"What should we do, guys?"<p>

Phineas was pacing around the study floor nonstop. Ferb, though he was sitting in a chair nearby, was no less nervous. Isabella and Irving sat next to Buford and Baljeet, whom Isabella had hurriedly called over for the emergency meeting.

"What _can_ we do?" Baljeet asked. "If you don't know who your attacker was yesterday, and you have not actually been harmed, then what is the point?"

"Well, don't you think we should tell the police?" Isabella asked. "Even if Phineas and Ferb are fine now, who knows what happened to them after the video feed cut out yesterday?"

"Yeah, they could've been abducted by aliens or something," Buford added.

Everyone turned and stared at him.

"Well, it's possible!" Buford protested. "You guys have met aliens before."

"Yeah, but none of them wanted to kidnap us," Phineas said.

"Except for maybe Mitch," Isabella noted.

"Some people call him Big Mitch," Buford added.

"Okay, this is getting us nowhere," Ferb interrupted, speaking for the first time and startling everyone. "Something dangerous is going on: we all need to focus."  
>Phineas nodded in agreement. "You're right, bro. Let's come up with a specific plan."<p>

"Well, we could start by re-watching the video footage," Irving offered. "Maybe with all of us watching we'll spot a clue."

"Good idea," Phineas replied, and Ferb nodded, returning to his normal silence.

Irving stood up and headed back for the computer, the others followed him and gathered around. He typed in a few key commands, and began to play the video from the beginning.

"So, where's the violence?" Buford asked. "It's just an empty street!"

"Shhh!" Irving shushed him. "You've gotta wait for it."

"This movie totally should've been rated G," Buford mumbled.

"What is all the noise here!" came a voice suddenly from the hallway, and the door to the study burst open. "I am trying to mourn my existence!"

"Oh. Hi, Candace," Phineas said.

Candace stood still, aghast at all the people in the room. Baljeet, Irving, Isabella, and Buford grinned sheepishly and waved, but Candace did not smile back. Turning to her brothers, she grimaced.

"Phineas, Ferb, you guys are so busted…"

"Candace, it's not what it looks like," Phineas tried to say, but Candace stopped him.

"No, I don't wanna know," Candace replied. "But I know what I do want: all of you, out!"

"But Candace…" Phineas protested.

"Nope," she answered, "out, all of you! I'm not getting into trouble again because of you two!"

"Technically, you got in trouble last night because you left the house first…"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Candace snapped. "Anyone who doesn't live here needs to get out of this house now!"

Phineas tried to speak again, but his sister silenced him with a look. Isabella, Irving, Buford, and Baljeet looked at the brothers and sighed, then began to stand up and walk out of the room.

"That's right, keep on walking," Candace said as the friends traipsed past her towards the door. "Keep on walking…whoa, what's that?"

Everyone turned back around to see that the video was playing on the computer screen. The man in the lab coat had pulled his strange machine up and was warming up the laser. A moment later, the machine fired, and the video feed went to static.

Candace, stunned, could say nothing. Everyone else also seemed at a loss for words, except for Buford.

"Hey, I know that guy!"

"Wait, what?" Phineas asked.

"I know who the dude in the lab coat is," Buford said again.

"Wait, wait, wait," Candace interrupted, obviously still processing this information. "So my brothers were attacked with some sort of laser machine thingy…and you know this random guy in a lab coat who was controlling it?"

"I feel like I've seen him somewhere before, too," Isabella noted.

"No, no, no," Buford said, "I actually know this guy – I worked for him once."

"You _worked _for this man who attacked Phineas and Ferb?" Baljeet said, just as astounded as everyone else.

"Well, yeah," the bully replied. "Remember that one time you stopped being my nerd and then you climbed Danville Mountain and built that ice chalet and then you gave me a wedgie and we used that as a parachute?"

"Um, yes," Baljeet answered, "but…"

"So while you guys were off climbing that mountain, I was helping this lab coat guy build this machine thing to help him take over the Tri-State Area or something."

"Why would you do something like that?" Irving asked.

"Uh, his rhetoric was inspiring," Buford replied. "Plus, he let me bully people."

"Of course he did," Baljeet rolled his eyes.

"Well, do you remember what his name was?" Candace asked impatiently

"Ooh, that's a good question," Buford said. "I think it was Doof-something…Doofieburg…Doofinsmit…Doofenblatz…"

"Doofenshmirtz?" Ferb asked suddenly.

"Oh yeah, that's it, Doofenshmirtz!" Buford exclaimed. "Knew I'd get there eventually."

"Wait, Doofenshmirtz…I know that name," Candace said, realizing something herself. "That's that girl's last name – the goth chick!"

"Vanessa," Ferb said.

"Yeah, Vanessa!" Candace repeated. "This dude must be her great-granddad or something…or maybe her really old step brother…"

"It's her father," Ferb realized.

"How do you know that?" Isabella asked.

"Once," Ferb explained, "when I was with Vanessa, she told me her father was…evil."

"Oh yeah," Buford realized. "That explains why he really wanted to take over the Tri-State Area. I thought it was just for the babes."

Everyone stared at him again.

"Well, you know, it can't hurt," Buford said sheepishly.

"So let me get this straight," Phineas spoke, "a guy named Doofenshmirtz, who not only happens to be Vanessa's dad but is also evil, zapped us with a laser last night and maybe tried to kill us."

Everyone nodded silently.

"Well, we've definitely had worse things happen to us in a single night," Phineas admitted, trying to put on a positive smile. "Right, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded, returning to silence once more. But in his head he was thinking loudly: _This cannot be good. This cannot be good at all._

.

"Hey, duplicates, I'm ready to go, where's the inator?"

Doofenshmirtz bounded into his lair in a fresh lab coat, smiling grandly. On the other side of the lair, his assistants, who appeared to be working on something, quickly covered it with a cloth and turned around.

"Right here, sir," Phineas gestured to the covered machine. "It is fully functional and ready to go when you are."

"Ooh, yay!" Doofenshmirtz exclaimed. "I think this might be the closest I've ever come to having one of my plans succeed…I'm an evil genius!"

"Of course, sir," Ferb said, with a tone of sarcasm that was lost on the scientist.

"Why thank you," Doofenshmirtz said, quite pleased. "Now, just hand over the inator and I'll be off to City Hall…"

"Well, sir," Phineas interrupted, picking the inator up off the table, "Ferb and I have been working very hard on this all day, and we would hate to not be able to see you use it in your incredibly _evil _plan. Wouldn't you let us come with you?"

The scientist stopped for a moment and looked at the duplicates. "Well, it's such an _evil _mission…which is nothing to an evil genius like me, but are you sure you two can handle the eviltude?"

"Oh, quite sure," Ferb smirked.

"Hmmm," Doofenshmirtz thought. "Well, I guess it's okay if you two tag along – as long as you stay behind me and don't distract Roger too much."

"Anything you need, sir," Ferb grinned.

"Well, all right, that's fine," the scientist gave in.

Phineas and Ferb grinned their usual evil grins in reply.

"Thank you, sir," Phineas replied. "I promise you won't regret this."

"Well, okay then, evil assistants, let's boogie!" Doofenshmirtz cried, "we've got a Tri-State Area to take over!" and with that the scientist, returning to his excited mood, danced with glee out the door. The duplicates followed behind him, carrying the inator. But Phineas turned and whispered to Ferb, smirking as he did so.

"I promise you won't regret it _yet._"

* * *

><p><strong>And as Ferb said, that cannot be good at all. Next chapter will have the moment you've all been waiting for...well, I'm not sure all of you, but perhaps at least some...but you'll have to just wait and see what it is. (No worries, I wrote this part in advance, so you won't have to wait around for a long time, I promise.) Thanks for reading everyone, and please feel free to leave a review!<strong>


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi everyone! Thanks to everyone who read my last update - glad to see I've still got a following! Special thanks of course to my reviewers: iheartphinabella05, NattyMc, Lichylichy, and WordNerb93. You guys are great! :) And now, the part you've all been waiting for...I think...and I do not own Phineas and Ferb, by the way...Chapter 17!**

* * *

><p>"Roger, prepare to meet your doom!"<p>

Doofenshmirtz thrust his foot into the door to the mayor's office and promptly fell over when the door did not budge. The Phineas and Ferb duplicates stood behind him motionlessly, holding the covered inator.

"Sheesh, that usually works in the movies," Heinz muttered, getting back up. Melanie, the mayor's secretary, was sitting at a desk nearby and had not reacted to any of this.

"Hey, Melanie," Heinz called, remembering the woman's name from his short stint as Danville's mayor, "can you let me into Roger's office?"

"The mayor is busy right now," Melanie replied, filing her nails and not looking up. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Then I can't let you in. Sorry."

Doofenshmirtz frowned and was about to speak again, when Phineas suddenly held up his hand.

"Here, sir, let me handle this," the duplicate interrupted, handing the inator off to Ferb. Approaching the desk, he leaned over and stared directly into Melanie's eyes.

"You are going to let us into this office right now," Phineas whispered dangerously, "or something bad, very bad, is going to happen to your family. Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-y-yes, sir," Melanie gulped, fear immediately changing her expression. "Here, l-let me get the keys."

The secretary quickly grabbed the key ring from the desk in front of her, and fumbling with the different keys.

_Wow_, Doofenshmirtz thought, _these kids are even better intimidators than I thought…I _am_ an evil genius!_

Melanie eventually found the right key and placed it in the office door, unlocking it.

"Mayor Doofenshmirtz, your brother's here to see you," the secretary spoke quickly, thrusting open the door and ushering the others inside. As soon as they were inside, she promptly shut the door behind them, leaving Doofenshmirtz, Phineas, and Ferb alone with the mayor.

"Why, hello, Heinz!" Roger said, surprised, as he held a phone to his ear. He whispered something quickly into the receiver, then set it down. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Well, I always like to make my entrances unexpected," Doofenshmirtz replied handily, "and by unexpected, of course I mean _completely expected!"_

"Yes, yes, that's nice, Heinz," Roger answered. "Listen, I've got a very important, top-secret conference call going on right now, so if you wouldn't mind, perhaps we can catch up at a time when I don't have other plans."

"Well, it looks like your plans have changed, haven't they?" Doofenshmirtz grinned evilly. "Now, my brother, I order you to surrender to me and declare me supreme ruler of the Tri-State Area! And if you come quietly, I promise to give you a small job in my new reign – maybe filing cabinet organizer or something. How's that sound?"

Roger laughed. "Oh, Heinz, you're not going on about taking over the Tri-State Area again, are you? I've already told you, I can't just give you complete control of the region. Maybe you can start small – perhaps as a filing cabinet organizer." Roger chuckled at his own joke, but Doofenshmirtz was not amused.

"Huh, well then," Doofenshmirtz replied, "maybe this will change your mind…assistants, bring out the new inator!"

Phineas and Ferb turned to each other, grinned maniacal grins, and then Ferb threw off the cloth that was covering the inator and held the machine up at the mayor.

Both Doofenshmirtzes gasped loudly.

"Wait, that's not the kind of inator I was expecting!" the scientist exclaimed, shocked. "That's a gun!"

Phineas nodded in Doofenshmirtz's general direction, while Ferb stared straight at the mayor, who, shocked himself, was now trembling with fear.

"B-but you can't use guns!" Doofenshmirtz blurted. "Those things hurt people!"

"Exactly," Ferb said coldly, keeping the gun trained on Roger.

"Okay, okay," Doofenshmirtz tried to explain quickly, "maybe I wasn't clear when I debriefed you guys. I approve of _cartoonish_ violence and mayhem, and fighting hand and foot with Perry the Platypus, but I don't want to _kill _anyone! That – that's just…"

"Evil?" Phineas interrupted, turning to the scientist. "You see, Doofenshmirtz, herein lies your problem: you fail to do what is necessary to get what you want. You're simply not _evil _enough. No wonder a _platypus_ can beat you continuously."

"Hey, don't talk about Perry the Platypus that way…" Doofenshmirtz began to say, but Ferb interrupted him.

"I'm tired of this conversation," the duplicate said. "I can't believe I put up with your incessant chatter for this entire day…who knows how anybody else deals with you. I'll be glad to dispose of you when we've secured our rule."

"Sheesh, you guys really are evil," Doofenshmirtz realized. "Wow…I'm feeling such an odd mixture of pride and mortal terror."

"That's it, I can't take it anymore," Ferb interrupted. "Shut him up."

"With pleasure," Phineas nodded in agreement, then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small ray gun.

"Hey, wait a minute, did you steal my Bind-and-Gag-inator…?" the scientist began, but was stopped as Phineas shot him with the inator. In a moment Doofenshmirtz had fallen to the floor, tightly bound and gagged with some rope and cloth. The scientist tried to yell out and pull away from his bonds, but was unable to budge or say anything clear.

"Mmph! Mmph!" Doofenshmirtz mumbled as loudly as he could, but Ferb pointed the gun at him and quickly silenced the man.

"You," Ferb said, turning the gun back on Roger, "you're going to sign over the complete control of the Tri-State Area to us."

Roger continued to tremble and was about to say something, but Phineas interrupted him: "Just do it!"

The mayor gulped, then shaking, slowly moved back behind his desk. Continuously glancing at the gun in Ferb's hands, Roger pulled out a piece of paper and began to write nervously. As he was about to sign it, however, he hesitated.

"Sign it or I'll blow your brains out," Ferb said, unmoving.

Roger quickly signed his name to the paper and pushed it back in the duplicates' direction. Phineas took the paper, and after reading it over, signed it himself. Ferb did the same, continuing to train the gun on the mayor. Doofenshmirtz watched from the ground, horrified.

"Excellent," Ferb remarked as he finished, then rolled up the paper and put it in his pocket. "A pleasure doing business with you, mayor…or should I say, filing cabinet organizer."

Phineas and Ferb laughed menacingly with one another, while the Doofenshmirtz brothers exchanged worried looks.

"Tie him up," Ferb ordered, and Phineas quickly pulled the Bind-and-Gag inator back out. In a moment the ex-mayor was on the floor, in the same predicament as his brother. Ferb finally lowered the gun and set it on the desk.

"Go put those two in the closet over there," Ferb told Phineas, "I'm going to find Melanie and have her make us some coffee…"

The duplicates grinned evilly at one another, and as Ferb left the room, Phineas picked up the Doofenshmirtz brothers with incredible strength, and one-by-one tossed them into the mayor's closet. And as the duplicate shut the door, Heinz and Roger were left in the darkness of the tiny room.

"Mmmm mmph mmpphhh, mmppph mmmpph mmph," the evil scientist mumbled indistinguishably through his gag.

"Mmmmph," Roger agreed.

* * *

><p><strong>Uh oh, this doesn't look good...things just seem to keep taking a turn for the worse, don't they? Well, don't worry, they will get better - it's just a matter of me figuring out how that's going to happen...but don't worry, I will! Thanks for reading everyone, and please don't hesitate to leave a review!<strong>


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi everyone! Well, I told myself I wouldn't delay in updating, but then exams came...and writer's block...and exams aren't even done yet...anyway, I just want to say I'm very very very very very very very very very sorry for taking so long. But I think I'm finally making progress, and hopefully everyone still wants to read! Plus, we'll be seeing someone in this chapter who we haven't seen for a while, so hopefully you'll forgive me. :) Of course, I'd love to thank my great reviewers: iheartphinabella05, WordNerb93, and MegaT22! Getting reviews is my favorite part of writing fanfiction, so you guys always make my day. And now, so as not to delay you any longer, I do not own Phineas and Ferb, and may I now present: Chapter 18!**

* * *

><p>"Okay, everyone, let's split into teams," Phineas said, turning to his brother, sister, and friends. They had all gathered back in the Flynn-Fletcher study, ready to come up with a plan. "We're going to need to cover all our bases."<br>"What bases?" Candace asked. "All we know is that some old guy is after you and Ferb. What are we supposed to do about that?"

"Well, first of all," Phineas replied, "we can start by finding Vanessa, since the man in the lab coat is her dad. Maybe she knows something about what happened to us last night."

"Great," Buford jumped in. "The nerd and I can take that job. I think I remember where the dude's evil lair is, so maybe we can find her there."

"You know, you could call me by my name once in a while," Baljeet said grumpily.

"Oh, sorry," the bully corrected himself, "_Mr. _Nerd."

"So, what are you going to do, Phineas?" Isabella interrupted, turning to the redhead. "Are you going to go looking for Vanessa too?"

"Nope," Phineas answered, "Ferb and I will stay back here and get to work: I've got an invention planned to help us out."

"Of course you do," Isabella smiled at him, causing Phineas to blush involuntarily.

_I've got to stop doing that,_ Phineas thought, but then quickly came back to Earth.

"Which reminds me," the inventor said, "I'm going to need some special parts for the machine from the Googolplex Mall…"

"Candace and I will take that," Isabella volunteered.

"Wait, what?" Candace jumped. "No way am I going to help you guys with one of your crazy schemes. Besides, we're not supposed to leave the house!"  
>"Come on, Candace, this is important," Phineas tried to tell his sister, but was quickly interrupted.<p>

"Uh uh, not happening," Candace shook her head. "Every time I get involved in one of your plans, I always end up almost dead. Or grounded. Nope, I'm not going through that again…"

"Candace," Phineas pleaded, "this is about more than just me and Ferb. Vanessa's dad is evil – he wants to take over the Tri-State Area. What if he's planning that now? Do you really want to let that happen?"

"Well, no…"

"Then help us, please."

Candace looked at her brother, then his friends. She hesitated for a moment, thinking of her parents, but eventually nodded.

"Okay, I'll go get my car," Candace decided.

"Yes!" Buford cheered. "Candace party! Candace party!"

Everyone stopped and stared at him.

"What?" he asked sheepishly.

"Okay, let's get going, everyone!" Phineas spoke up. "We'll all meet back here in a few hours…"

"Wait, Phineas!" Irving shouted suddenly. "What should I do?" The redhead turned around and realized that he had completely forgotten about his biggest fan.

"Oh, sorry, Irving," Phineas said. "You can…um…go home and keep an eye on your video cameras of the city. Let us know if you see anything."  
>"Yes!" Irving cried gleefully. "I get to be a part of a Phineas and Ferb mission! Woohoo!"<br>Irving hurried out of the room as everyone stared after him. Shaking his head, Phineas turned back to the others.

"Okay, guys, let's go! We've got an evil scientist to find!"

.

Perry sat lonely and cramped in his trap. He had not moved for several hours, trying to avoid being zapped by the automatic lasers with which the trap was equipped. Doofenshmirtz had left his lair long ago, and Perry had not heard anything outside his trap for a long time, save for the occasional sobs that could be heard from the closet where Norm was being stored. All was quiet now.

Agent P had tried to listen closely to the conversations that had gone on in the lair before the evil scientist and his assistants had left. From what things sounded like, the duplicates had built some sort of destructive machine, and were going with Doofenshmirtz to City Hall to help him force Roger out of office. Normally, the platypus would have hardly been concerned about the possible success of such a 2plan, but with those duplicates helping – if they could build anything like the real Phineas and Ferb could – then things did not look good.

Perry didn't understand how this could have possibly happened – how he could've let it happen. Who would stop Doofenshmirtz from taking over the Tri-State Area now? The platypus glanced sadly at his empty wrist. Before throwing him in the trap, the Phineas and Ferb duplicates had ripped off Perry's wrist communicator and thrown it on a nearby table. The platypus had no way of contacting Major Monogram, Carl, or even his real family, so the OWCA probably didn't even know he had failed his mission, and was simply waiting for him to return. And who knew how long they would wait?

Perry's guilt was overwhelming, and the fact that he couldn't distract himself made it even worse. The platypus curled up into a ball. If only he could fall asleep, maybe he could forget the situation he was in…

"Okay, move it all out!"

Perry sat up and inadvertently burned his head on a laser as he did so. Stopping himself from making any noise, he rubbed his head and listened to what was going on outside his trap.

"I want everything that looks like piece of a machine, tool, or equipment to be loaded up and taken back to City Hall," continued the voice. "Leave anything else here: I don't want it cluttering up our new lair."

Perry nearly jumped again. He knew that voice all too well: it was Phineas…no, not Phineas, Phineas's evil duplicate – Perry had to remember that. The real Phineas didn't act like this.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" the voice yelled suddenly, startling Perry. "Snap to it!"

A bustling of movement began to sound outside Perry's trap. Feet began to move quickly past him. Perry thought quickly: these were probably people who worked with a moving company – decent people who might let him out of his trap. The platypus began to chatter as loud as he could.

"Sir, I think something's in here," a voice said, hearing the platypus and approaching the trap. Agent P held his breath.

"Don't touch that!" Phineas yelled suddenly, and Perry could hear the mover quickly back away.

"Did I tell you to pick up that box?" Phineas asked menacingly.

"N-no, sir," the mover replied, "but…"

"Then stay away from it!" Phineas ordered.

"Yes, sir! Won't happen again, sir! So sorry, sir!" the mover panicked, and he hurried away from Perry's trap.

"Stupid peasants…" Phineas muttered, and Perry heard him walk away from the trap. The platypus was crestfallen.

What had happened at City Hall? Doofenshmirtz couldn't have actually taken over, could he? But then why was he sending his assistant to move all his inators? And why was everyone so afraid of Phineas's duplicate?

Perry curled back up into a ball as he heard the movers bustle even faster in the lair around him. He didn't even want to think about what could have happened in his absence…he'd only feel more awful than he already did. If only someone would come find him…someone in the OWCA, or maybe even someone in his family. Then he might be able to fix things…

But until then, Agent P was trapped.

* * *

><p><strong>And will someone find him and let him out of that trap? Well, maybe...but you'll have to hold on to find out! I'm almost to that part in writing now, so it shouldn't take too long...cross your fingers. :) Thanks for reading everyone, and please don't hesitate to leave a review!<strong>


End file.
